After the defeat in Sunday’s elections, the Finnish premier is leaving. «I will continue as a deputy, I have not had international offers. I don’t see myself as a minister of a new government”
“I must say that these years have put my resistance to a severe test”: thus, with a sigh, the outgoing Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced today her resignation as president of his party, the Social Democrats, and therefore also as prime minister (in office for current affairs). She did so at a press conference, the first since her defeat in Sunday’s elections. The Finns voted for the renewal of Parliament, and therefore for a new government: it will no longer be she who will form it, since her party ranked third with 19.9% of the votes, but her center-right rival Petteri Orpo (20. 8%).
“I have come to the conclusion that I will never reappear for a new mandate as a leader of the Social Democrats at the September congress”, she said: thus implicitly excluding even a post in the next government.
He then also explicitly excluded it. «It doesn’t seem probable to me that I personally will be in the next government. After all, I haven’t even had any international proposals (a position at NATO has been hypothesized, ed). I will continue as a deputy ».
Many wondered how he would handle his new position of «underdog», and while it was assumed, or perhaps even already underway, that she would have been offered a “weighty” ministry (the rumor that circulated the most was Foreign Affairs) it was equally assumed that he would refuse. He had made it clear almost a priori that he would not participate in the next government, with a liberal traction and most likely based on an alliance with the sovereignist and nationalist Finns – if, in fact, the Finns had been part of it.
On April 6, he will also resign from her role as prime ministerwhich he would normally have maintained, for the handling of current affairs, until the appointment of a new government, which analysts do not expect before the end of June.
Sanna Marin then thanked for the “great honour” of having been able to lead the government, adding however that she had had “exceptionally difficult moments”. “I have to admit that my resistance has been tested over the years,” she concluded.
Still no official communication from his party, the Social Democrats: even for them, in an electorate crisis, an era comes to an end. Sanna Marin, 37 years old, 34 when she was nominated prime minister and therefore, at the time, the youngest in the world, has rejuvenated a party that has historically many more older than younger voters, so much so as to guarantee him seven more seats in the last elections than in 2019: snatched from the Greens and the Left. However, the number two of the Social Democrats, Matias Makynen, is 32 years old and one of the favorite names for the succession.
April 5, 2023 (change April 5, 2023 | 11:13 am)
© Time.News