AFP, Helsinki :
Finns are expected to oust Prime Minister Alexander Stubb’s left-right coalition in Sunday’s legislative elections, amid hopes that a new government will pull Finland out of its three-year economic slump.
The Centre Party, a liberal-agrarian party that has fostered 11 prime ministers and three presidents but has been relegated to the opposition since 2011, is expected to be the big winner on Sunday.
Its leader Juha Sipila, a 53-year-old former businessman and IT millionaire new to politics, has vowed to modernise Finland the way he has rejuvenated his party since taking over the leadership in 2012.
Known as a serious and persistent leader, Sipila has promised to create 200,000 jobs in 10 years, in a country where the trend unemployment rate is 9.2 percent, its highest level since 2003.
Finland’s struggling economy-a year of stagnation in 2014 preceded by two years of recession-has been the main issue in the election campaign, benefitting Sipila who was largely unknown in Finland until he took over the party leadership three years ago.
He has played up his success in business and touted his management know-how.
“I have a lot of experience of how to manage companies to make big changes,” he told Finnish public broadcaster YLE.
“People want a change, and it (the Centre) has a new leader that they seem to trust,” Helsinki University political history professor Juhana Aunesluoma said.
Stubb, of the conservative National Coalition Party, has seen his government’s popularity slide since taking over as prime minister in June, when he replaced Jyrki Katainen who went to the European Commission.
The current broad coalition, once six parties but now down to four-the National Coalition Party, the Social Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Swedish People’s Party-has been mired in discord, preventing it from pushing through any real reforms.
While polls have long predicted a Centre victory on Sunday, it remains unclear which other parties Sipila is likely to seek out to build a coalition.
Surveys show three parties are neck-and-neck for second place behind the Centre: the Social Democrats, the National Coalition and the eurosceptic right-wing Finns Party, currently in the opposition.
A fresh poll published Thursday by public broadcaster YLE credited the Centre Party with 24 percent of voter support, putting it in the lead, ahead of Stubb’s National Coalition with 16.9 percent, the Finns Party with 16.7 percent, and the Social Democrats with 15.1 percent.
The building of a coalition is expected to take weeks, with thorny negotiations to reach a common platform.
Once a new government is formed, it “will have a lot of decisions to make immediately,” Aunesluoma said.
It will have to get to work to bring Finland’s budget deficit under three percent of GDP, all the while boosting investments and creating jobs, while coping with one of Europe’s most rapidly aging populations.
“The government has to think about what it can do to help Finland’s businesses recover from their current problems, to renew the economic structures and increase productivity and put Finland on the track where it was before the financial crisis started some years ago,” Aunesluoma said.
The Finnish election result is expected to be watched closely in Brussels:
Finland has been one of the most reticent eurozone members, if not the most, when it comes to bailing out debt-laden Greece.
Finns are expected to oust Prime Minister Alexander Stubb’s left-right coalition in Sunday’s legislative elections, amid hopes that a new government will pull Finland out of its three-year economic slump.
The Centre Party, a liberal-agrarian party that has fostered 11 prime ministers and three presidents but has been relegated to the opposition since 2011, is expected to be the big winner on Sunday.
Its leader Juha Sipila, a 53-year-old former businessman and IT millionaire new to politics, has vowed to modernise Finland the way he has rejuvenated his party since taking over the leadership in 2012.
Known as a serious and persistent leader, Sipila has promised to create 200,000 jobs in 10 years, in a country where the trend unemployment rate is 9.2 percent, its highest level since 2003.
Finland’s struggling economy-a year of stagnation in 2014 preceded by two years of recession-has been the main issue in the election campaign, benefitting Sipila who was largely unknown in Finland until he took over the party leadership three years ago.
He has played up his success in business and touted his management know-how.
“I have a lot of experience of how to manage companies to make big changes,” he told Finnish public broadcaster YLE.
“People want a change, and it (the Centre) has a new leader that they seem to trust,” Helsinki University political history professor Juhana Aunesluoma said.
Stubb, of the conservative National Coalition Party, has seen his government’s popularity slide since taking over as prime minister in June, when he replaced Jyrki Katainen who went to the European Commission.
The current broad coalition, once six parties but now down to four-the National Coalition Party, the Social Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Swedish People’s Party-has been mired in discord, preventing it from pushing through any real reforms.
While polls have long predicted a Centre victory on Sunday, it remains unclear which other parties Sipila is likely to seek out to build a coalition.
Surveys show three parties are neck-and-neck for second place behind the Centre: the Social Democrats, the National Coalition and the eurosceptic right-wing Finns Party, currently in the opposition.
A fresh poll published Thursday by public broadcaster YLE credited the Centre Party with 24 percent of voter support, putting it in the lead, ahead of Stubb’s National Coalition with 16.9 percent, the Finns Party with 16.7 percent, and the Social Democrats with 15.1 percent.
The building of a coalition is expected to take weeks, with thorny negotiations to reach a common platform.
Once a new government is formed, it “will have a lot of decisions to make immediately,” Aunesluoma said.
It will have to get to work to bring Finland’s budget deficit under three percent of GDP, all the while boosting investments and creating jobs, while coping with one of Europe’s most rapidly aging populations.
“The government has to think about what it can do to help Finland’s businesses recover from their current problems, to renew the economic structures and increase productivity and put Finland on the track where it was before the financial crisis started some years ago,” Aunesluoma said.
The Finnish election result is expected to be watched closely in Brussels:
Finland has been one of the most reticent eurozone members, if not the most, when it comes to bailing out debt-laden Greece.
