The government of National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo looks like after a year like a wrecking ball of Finland’s social welfare state. We have already seen how his government actions have undermined the labor market, social welfare, and emboldened hostile migration policy.
The next big step is the government’s plans to pass the pushback law, which would in effect trash Human Rights, the Constitution, and international law.
Despite these radical changes, voters offered a surprise: The Left Alliance placed second after the NCP with 17.3% in the recent MEP election.
The Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, relied on its anti-immigration message to get votes. It failed. The PS came in sixth place with only 13.8%.
The recent opinion poll by Yle revealed that the Left Alliance gained 11.6%, up 2.1 percentage points, which is a record for te party.
Source: Yle News
The question we should ask is what these encouraging numbers mean for the Left Alliance and Finland in general. Is it a message against the austerity and xenophobic policies of the government? People are also getting fed up with the wishy-washy Social Democratic stance on, for example, the pushback law.
Did the Social Democrats get a -2.9 percentage hit in the recent opinion poll because they look too much like the NCP and PS if they were in government?
As austerity and xenophobic policies bite voters hard, people will be looking for real alternatives. One of these is the Left Alliance, which explains why they have done so well recently.
