2011-04-18

True Finns can thank social mood

Is it a coincidence that the True Finns win a resounding victory in the Finnish election and the following day fears of a Greek default ignite? Only if you haven't been watching the yield curve on Greek and Portuguese bonds. Yields have been moving higher this year and the True Finns victory and the high yields are both results of negative social mood.

Here's a Finnish editorial on the True Finns' victory, EDITORIAL: Timo Soini rewrote the electoral history books
The success of the True Finns was even more emphatic and dramatic than anyone, with the possible exception of Soini at his most optimistic, had dared to expect.
Soini and his troops effectively channeled and ignited a sense of protest that has long been smouldering in the public mind.
With his own haul of more than 43,000 individual votes in Uusimaa, Soini became the most popular candidate in the entire country, even if his tally fell far short of the massive 60,000 and more collected by Sauli Niinistö (National Coalition Party) four years ago.

The National Coalition Party, too, enjoyed a historic victory of a kind, albeit not with a historically high share of the total vote.
For the first time in the party's history, the National Coalition became the largest grouping in Parliament, with 44 seats. Despite suffering a loss of six seats from the previous elections, the party chairman Jyrki Katainen, as prime minister designate, will be the first who is charged with attempting to form a new government.
True Finns tapped into the social mood and won big. How did the forces of moderation perform?
To add still more to the sense of history in the making, on Sunday the Centre Party achieved a historic result, in that they suffered a defeat of unprecedented proportions and went from being the largest party in the country - with the prime minister's portfolio - to a rather distant fourth and an immediate exit into opposition.
There is no doubt that Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi and the Centrists were left to shoulder the responsibility and the blame for the support of eurozone countries that have got into difficulties.
When Finland joined the euro, the Centre Party was in opposition and opposed our entry into the eurozone.
The opposition benches also beckon for Anne Sinnemäki and the other Greens, who lost seats and votes.

There was actually a third winner in this election: Finnish parliamentary democracy.
Voter turnout improved appreciably from the figure in 2007, to reach 70.4%.
This gives a strong mandate for the work of the new Parliament.
Turnout up, moderates out, nationalists in. Expect more of the same in the ensuing European elections. Although the parties in and out of power may shift from left to right, anti-bailout policies will be espoused by most of those who outperform expectations.

Recall that last month in Germany and France, the parties in power were dealt losses. This headline from the Guardian tells you all you need to know about the results: French local election gains for socialists and far-right.

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