Government crisis in Finland

Abstract

On December 3, 2019, the Finnish Prime Minister A. Rinne, who had been in office for less than six months, presented his resignation to the President. The reason for the resignation was criticism of the government’s actions in connection with the strike of postal workers. The Parliament, with the votes of deputies from opposition parties and the Finnish Center party, which is a part of the ruling coalition, expressed no confidence in the Prime Minister. At the same time, the «centrists» did not abandon the preservation of the government coalition. The author analyzes the circumstances of the government crisis, including the postal workers strike that preceded it, and explores the contradictions between the Social Democrats and the Finnish Centre party. The author’s conclusions are based on analysis of complex political composition that emerged in Finland after the April election 2019. Government crisis caused by the demarche of the Finland’s Center, which expected to weaken the position of the SDPF with a personal attack on the leader of the Social Democrats and strengthen their own one, has not led to the collapse of the coalition, but weakened it. Such development of the events is primarily in favor of the right-wing Coalition party, which claims to be the leader of the opposition, and the nationalist party «True Finns», which according to the results of public monitoring came out in recent months on the front place.

Keywords

• finland
• parliament of finland
• «true finns»
• party finlands center
• social democratic party of finland
• a. rinne
• coalition party
• left union
• greens