Finns go to the polls on Sunday in a parliamentary election that could cost Sanna Marin, the current prime minister, power amid concerns among voters about the future of public services amid an economic recession, Reuters reported.

Neither party is believed to have a decisive leader and the election is likely to be followed by protracted coalition talks, although whichever party wins on Sunday will have its first attempt at forming a government.

Marin, 37, is admired around the world as a role model for new progressive leaders and remains very popular with many Finns, especially young moderates, but has drawn enmity from some conservatives for lavish spending on pensions and education that they see as irresponsible.

Voting started at 09:00 (06:00 GMT) and will end at 20:00 (17:00 GMT). Partial results will be published shortly thereafter.

Opinion polls show that Marin’s Social Democrats, the largest party in the coalition government currently in power, are tied with the center-right National Coalition and the Finnish Nationalist Party on around 18.7-19.8% of the ballot and are therefore dependent on smaller parties in the formation of the government.

“The right wing is offering an alternative that makes life miserable for all of us, cuts services, cuts livelihoods for the poorest,” Marin told supporters on Saturday. “We have an opportunity to choose a better alternative.”

The National Coalition has led the polls for almost two years, although its leader has disappeared in recent months. He has promised to cut spending and stop the rise in public debt, which has reached more than 70% of GDP since Marin took office in 2019.

The group accuses Marin of undermining Finland’s economic stability at a time when Europe’s energy crisis, caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine, has hit the country hard and the cost of living has risen.

The Finns party also calls for austerity, but its main goal is to reduce what its leader Riika Purra called “harmful” immigration from developing countries outside the European Union.

“For me, the biggest problem is public health. I think we need a strong health policy and then social justice,” one voter, psychologist Tuulikki Toropainen, 32, told Reuters on Saturday.

Finland joins NATO

The next government will see the first days of Finland’s accession to NATO. Marin’s most notable foreign policy activity since taking office in 2019 was her decision, along with President Sauli Niinisto, to change the country’s neutrality policy, seeking to become a member of the Western Defense Alliance due to security concerns following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. .

The process is now almost complete, with Helsinki expected to join the alliance within days.

About 1.7 million people, or 40.5 percent of eligible voters, have already cast ballots during the week-long early voting period that ended Tuesday, Justice Department figures show.

Marin’s Social Democrats believe that economic growth will help curb rising public debt, and that if the treasury needs to be balanced, they prefer to consider tax increases rather than spending cuts.

However, this increase is not inevitable. The economy of Finland, a country of 5.5 million people, has weathered the pandemic better than most European countries, but growth slowed to 1.9 percent last year and the country is expected to enter a mild recession this year, while inflation peaked in 9.1% December.

Sanna Marin

Unbeknownst even to many Finns, when she came to power in late 2019, Social Democrat Sanna Marin had the reputation—later lost—of being the youngest head of government in the world at the age of 34.

He heads a center-left coalition consisting of five parties – the Social Democratic Party, the Center Party, the Green Party, the Left Alliance and the Swedish People’s Party of Finland.

Born into a modest family, she grew up near Tampere, the country’s industrial bastion, where she later headed the city council.

“My parents divorced because of my father’s drinking problem when I was a child,” she said on her blog. She was raised by her mother and her partner, “in a rainbow family with modest means, who lived in a social apartment.” while financing his studies, he worked in a supermarket, which caused him to be teased.

Elected as a deputy at the age of 30, Sanna Marin began to stand out a year later with her oratorical qualities. After the victory of the Social Democrats in the parliamentary elections in the spring of 2019, she was appointed Minister of Transport.

She was appointed head of government after the resignation of Prime Minister Antti Rinne.

Her mandate was full of various controversies and marked by modernity, which is dividing the country.

Mother of a child born in 2017, Sanna Marin remains one of the standout figures in Europe’s young guard and is tipped for international fortunes, with her name floating around for posts in Brussels or elsewhere if she loses on Sunday.

Petteri Orpo

Petteri Orpo, 53, leader of the center-right National Coalition, is the most experienced of the three potential prime ministers. Since 2007, he has been a deputy, three times a minister.

Following in his father’s footsteps on the Finnish right, Petteri Orpo has a degree in political science and economics, a priority for his campaign. “We want to stop the increase in debt,” he told AFP on the sidelines of a recent meeting.

Accusing Sanna Marin of overspending by increasing public debt from 63% to 74% in four years, he intends to implement a €6 billion austerity plan.

Orpo led the party in 2016, but only managed to lead it to third place in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

Although he refused to continue governing with the Finns Party in 2017, this time he left open the option of an alliance with the anti-immigration nationalist group. Despite clear differences on immigration, the EU and the climate, the two sides “have a lot in common”, he argued.

Even if he does not emerge victorious on Sunday, analysts predict he will play a central role as he appears indispensable to both the Social Democrats and the nationalists in building a majority.

Rikka Purra

From 2021, Riika Purra leads the Eurosceptic Finns Party, which has focused its campaign against immigration, pointing to the counterexample of neighboring Sweden, which has been rocked by immigrant gang warfare.

In an interview with national television, Yle Purra admitted that his anti-immigration views stemmed from bullying from his youth.

His party sees leaving the EU as a long-term goal and wants to delay Finland’s goal of carbon neutrality, currently set for 2035.

A mother of two, she maintains a politically neutral Instagram account dedicated to her vegetarian diet. Orphaned by his mother at the age of 12, the now 45-year-old politician first devoted himself to environmental work as a teenager.