Socially conservative, Euro-sceptic insurgent party True Finns (PS) have again come second in a national election in Finland. They may now be asked to join a new ruling coalition with the liberal Centrist Party, knocking the nation’s conservative, pro-Europe party off the top spot.
Taking 38 seats of the 200 up for election, PS enjoyed 17.6 per cent of the vote, a significant bounce from a snap poll in the second week of the second week of April, just days before the election, which predicted them coming a distant fourth place.
The news of their convincing result, despite the concerning figures given by pollsters will be cheering for British Euro-sceptic party UKIP. They hope to take a number of seats at the general election in May, despite slowly declining poll ratings.
This is not the first notable election victory for PS, who as recently as 2007 only had five members of parliament before breaking through and becoming the second largest party. The potentially joint-victory of PS and the Centre Party, both Euro-sceptics and wary of the United-States led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) could also be seen as a major reaction to the events in the Ukraine and resurgent Russia, as Finns seek to avoid provoking Russia as the Ukrainians did, at the behest of the EU.
Negotiations over coalition deals, and who will end up running Finland for the next four to five years have now started, but it is considered likely PS will end up in the ruling coalition for the first time.