SDP takes the win as Finns Party vote collapses
yle.fi
Finland headed to the polls on Sunday to elect thousands of councillors in a range of local and regional bodies.

Finland headed to the polls on Sunday to elect thousands of councillors in a range of local and regional bodies.

The Social Democrats took a big win in the municipal elections, taking nearly one in four votes nationwide to push the National Coalition Party of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo into second place.

In the county council elections, for 21 regional bodies that arrange social and healthcare outside Helsinki, the SDP also topped the poll. The Centre Party recorded a good result in its rural heartlands to secure third spot.

Government parties did poorly, with all but the NCP losing support compared to the previous municipal elections in 2021. Turnout in the municipal election was 54.2 percent, while the county elections saw 51.7 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots.

The dual vote for municipal and county councils caused logistical issues for election officials, with counting slower than usual for Finland, where large numbers vote in advance and results are usually clear within a couple of hours of polls closing.

The Finns Party saw support collapse compared to the last municipal election, with the party nearly halving its vote from four years ago. They lost support in several towns that are seeing hospital services cut back as part of the central government’s savings drive.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    1·
    6 hours ago

    Yeah. Once upon a time both were feared as massive threats to the established order, which was at that time still pretty empire-y. Now, there’s broad consensus that actually, Africans are people too, and that it’s good when there’s some social mobility. You’d expect classlessness and international siblinghood to be easier to sell because of that, but apparently not so.

    Maybe it’s just the memory of the Cold War? Young people go left at least as much as right everywhere that I’ve heard of. On this side of the Atlantic there’s very little youth support for the far right, and it’s demographically evenly distributed in western Europe, while the hard left has youth support on both.

    Is the message “for the people” not as sexy as “kill those who don’t look like us?”

    I’m really not good at the sales part, but I think if you want to hit the monkey brain you go for “eat the rich”.