Finland: Has the Shift to the Right Stopped?

Abstract

The article deals with the political situation in Finland before and after the municipal elections 2017. The three largest parties of the country: the National Coalition Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Center party have lost, though not very much, the votes of the electorate. Unexpected was the retreat of the right-wing nationalist party The Finns, who lost 3.5% of the vote. Entering the government did not benefit this party and greatly exacerbated the contradictions within the organization, which led to the split of the party in the summer 2017.Two parties were formed: the party, which is more moderate remained in the government, but the radical one went into opposition. The processes taking place in the party are explained by the reasons of both internal and external nature. Voters are frightened by its radicalism and there is an outflow of their votes in favor of other opposition parties.

Keywords

• finland
• sweden
• municipal elections
• right-wing nationalist parties
• the finns party