Finland's newly elected parliament on Tuesday expectedly voted to nominate National Coalition Party (NCP) leader Petteri Orpo as prime minister, ending the reign of Social Democrat Sanna Marin.
This is reported by Reuters.
Orpo will lead a coalition of conservatives "National Coalition", right-wing populists and Eurosceptics "True Finns", the Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats, who together won the majority of seats in parliament in the April 2 election.
True Finns leader Rikka Purra will be the new finance minister and Coalition deputy leader Elina Valtonen will be foreign minister when the government takes office later on Tuesday.
"I sincerely thank you for the trust you have shown me," Orpo said in parliament shortly after the vote.
Orpo, a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative, campaigned on a promise to reduce the state budget deficit by cutting spending, as well as cutting taxes and boosting private sector job creation.
The new coalition is also shifting immigration policy to the right, seeking to reduce refugee quotas, raise the bar for work visas and make it harder for foreigners to obtain citizenship, key priorities for the "True Finns".
It will be recalled that the future Minister of Foreign Trade and Development of Finland, Wille Tavio, said that Helsinki may reconsider providing financial aid for development to those states that support Russia against the background of its aggression in Ukraine.
Earlier it became known that the participating parties of the new government coalition in Finland have decided on their candidates for the positions of ministers, which are assigned to them under the coalition agreement.
