That it would be about three parties, all with roughly equal support, was clear long before election day.
When the polling stations closed on Sunday evening, the results of the early votes were announced. At that time, the Samlingspartiet was just ahead of the Social Democrats with 20.8 percent against 20.7. But it was expected that the Social Democrats would lose when more and more districts were counted, and likewise that the True Finns, who were just behind at 18.6 percent, would catch up.
That was also the case when EPN’s election forecast was presented, barely two hours later. There, the Samlingspartiet was predicted to get 20.9 percent of the vote, the True Finns 20.5 and the Social Democrats 19.6.
The numbers would change a little, but the order of magnitude would hold. When the evening was over, the score was 20.8, 20.1 and 19.9 with the Samlingspartiet and the True Finns as the big winners.
– It feels good in the heart and it is clear that people want a change, our policy has the support of the population, says Samlingspartiet’s leader Petteri Orpo to Swedish EPN after declaring his party the winner during the election.
Sanna Marin: Democracy has spoken
Incumbent Prime Minister Sanna Marin and the Social Democrats managed to move forward from the previous election, but the two big parties on the right went over and over anyway.
– The people have cast their votes. Democracy has spoken, says Sanna Marin at the Social Democrats’ election watch after admitting the loss.
Learn to seek cooperation to the right
Most likely, the Coalition Party, which gets the chance to probe the terrain for a new government first, will turn against the True Finns. However, it is not entirely certain as Finland does not have the same distinct bloc policy as Sweden and that type of promise was not given in advance.
For the True Finns, who want to see a tighter immigration policy, it was a big election victory as the party received more votes than ever.