The results of Finland’s election, in which the incumbent Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Social Democrat party placed third, have consequences beyond the country’s borders, according to The Guardian. Marin, 36, became the world’s youngest political leader when she was elected Prime Minister in 2019. However, she lost her reelection bid amid an extremely narrow three-way race centered largely on the economy. The center-right National Coalition Party came in first in the Sunday parliamentary election, followed by the populist Finns Party.

The rise of far-right positions on issues such as climate targets and migration policy is a worrying trend already apparent after the election of the Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and events in Sweden. A "blue-black" coalition in Finland would further normalise these positions, despite the ability to address security matters such as Finland's accession to Nato and fierce support for Ukraine being limited. Little is expected to change, regardless of the makeup of the new government.

The victory for the National Coalition Party now gives its leader, Petteri Orpo, the option of pursuing a deficit-cutting coalition with the nationalist Finns Party, whose leader, Riikka Purra, has distanced the party from extreme rhetoric of the recent past. However, it remains vehemently opposed to non-EU immigration and committed to junking Finland's pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035.