Mhe new government is in place in Finland more than two months after the parliamentary elections. The negotiations on the government program have been completed, said the chairman of the conservative National Coalition Party and designated Prime Minister Petteri Orpo late Thursday evening. Orpo promised to “repair” Finland in the coalition with the right-wing populist base Finns, the Swedish People’s Party and the Christian Democrats.
Concrete projects and the names of the ministers are to be presented this Friday afternoon. According to media reports, there will be 19 ministers, as in the previous government. In addition to Orpo as prime minister, the leader of the grassroots Finns, Riikka Purra, is considered to be the finance minister.
The government is planning extensive reforms, especially in social spending and in the area of migration and asylum. Under the previous red-green coalition led by Sanna Marin, the country’s public debt has increased significantly. The new government is now planning cuts, some of them drastic, especially in social and health spending, but also in development cooperation. According to media reports, the housing benefit is to be reduced by 350 million euros, for example by reducing the number of housing benefit recipients. In addition, social welfare recipients are to be increasingly forced to look for a new apartment if their rent exceeds a certain level.
According to Iltalehti newspaper, the government is planning a newborn share savings account, for which the state will pay each child’s first investment. It is still unclear how high this will be. According to the government program, this should strengthen the ability of households to take care of their own finances and to understand the opportunities and risks of saving and investing.
The number of quota refugees is to be halved
One of the most contentious points in the coalition negotiations was the issue of immigration. In particular, the right-wing populist base Finns and the Swedish People’s Party were unable to come to an agreement for a long time. Now regulations on the right of residence are to be tightened, similar to what is planned in neighboring Sweden, where a conservative-right-wing populist alliance also governs. In Finland, for example, foreigners will be forced to leave the country if they have not found a new job within three months of the end of the previous job.
The requirements for obtaining a permanent residence permit and for obtaining Finnish citizenship are also to be tightened. Anyone who wants to become a Finn must have lived in the country for eight instead of five years. The lower income limit for a residence permit is to be raised. According to the program – as in Denmark – the withdrawal of citizenship in the event of participation in terrorist activities should also be examined.
According to the plans, there should be a change of direction in the area of integration. It is no longer the rights of the newcomers that are to be emphasized, but rather their duties. In the future, the government only wants to grant protection under the right of asylum for the duration of the minimum permissible across the EU. Also, only 500 so-called quota refugees mediated by the United Nations refugee agency are to be taken in each year, up to now there were 1050. Furthermore, the possibilities for family reunification are to be restricted.
In terms of climate policy, the goal set by the previous government of making the country climate-neutral by 2035 should be maintained. Emissions are to be reduced, but according to the government program this must not increase the everyday costs of citizens and weaken the economy. In order to achieve this, nuclear power is to be expanded. Accordingly, the government is committed to accepting all permit applications that meet the criteria and are acceptable from a national security perspective. In addition, financing solutions for nuclear power projects are to be promoted. The new government also wants to expand hydropower.
In the parliamentary elections in Finland in early April, Orpo’s National Coalition Party came out on top with 20.8 percent of the vote, closely followed by Purra’s base Finns with 20.1 percent. The Social Democrats of the previous Prime Minister Sanna Marin received only 19.9 percent, the Swedish People’s Party 4.3 percent, the Christian Democrats 4.2 percent.
#Finland #government #Helsinki #planning