BBC (“Sanna Marin defeated by Finland’s conservatives in tight race“):

Finnish conservative leader Petteri Orpo has won a nail-biting three-way election race, defeating Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s centre left.

“We got the biggest mandate,” said the leader of the National Coalition Party, after a dramatic night in which the result gradually swung away from Ms Marin’s Social Democrats.

Mr Orpo secured 20.8% of the vote, ahead of the right-wing populist Finns Party and the centre left.

The populists won a record 20.1%.

It is a bitter defeat for Ms Marin, who increased her party’s seats and secured 19.9% of the vote.

She continues to enjoy high poll ratings and has been widely praised for steering Finland towards imminent entry into Nato and navigating her country through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shortly after the conservative leader claimed victory, the centre-left leader conceded the election.

“Congratulations to the winner of the elections, congratulations to the National Coalition Party, congratulations to the Finns Party. Democracy has spoken,” she told supporters.

For weeks the three parties had been almost level in the polls, and as the results came in it became too close to call. Then a projection from public broadcaster YLE gave Petteri Orpo’s National Coalition victory with the biggest number of seats in parliament.

“I think Finnish people want change. They want change and now I will start negotiations, open negotiations with all parties,” he said.

There was a mood of euphoria in the camp, said Matti Koivisto, political correspondent with public broadcaster YLE. “When they saw the projection, it was quite clear they were going to win.”

Finns Party leader Riikka Purra congratulated her centre-right rival and was herself delighted with the best result in her party’s history.

“We’re still challenging to be number one, but seven more seats is an excellent result.”

The Finns underlined their success by winning more regions than any other party in mainland Finland. Riikka Purra won more votes than any other candidate and commentators highlighted her party’s appeal to young voters by reaching out over social media such as TikTok.

Meanwhile, three of the other parties in the outgoing coalition – the Centre Party, Left Alliance and Greens – all rang up big losses.

[…]

Despite her successful response to neighbouring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the election was largely fought on Finland’s economy and public debt as all the mainstream parties backed Nato membership.

[…]

The conservatives will have the first opportunity in forming a government, and if they succeed, Mr Orpo, 53, will become the next prime minister.

Under an Orpo-led government, Europe could expect a pro-European conservative from the liberal centre of his party with an emphasis on economic policy.

Less exciting than Sanna Marin and very moderate, says Vesa Vares, professor of contemporary history at the University of Turku: “A sort of dream son-in-law.”

Under Finland’s system of proportional representation he will have to muster more than 100 seats in the 200-seat parliament to run the country, and that will not be straightforward.

Mr Orpo really has two choices ahead of him, either forming a right-wing coalition with Riikka Purra’s nationalist Finns Party or reaching an agreement with Sanna Marin’s Social Democrats.

“The Finns are a very difficult partner because they’re so inexperienced and they have MPs who are discontented towards almost anything,” says Prof Vares.

“The most natural thing would be to co-operate with the Social Democrats. But [Sanna Marin] used to belong to her party’s left wing and it’s obvious she doesn’t like the conservatives.”

I don’t make any claim to following Finnish politics closely but I’m struck by how refreshingly ordinary this all is amidst so much turmoil in Western politics in recent years. All of the party leaders who had a plausible chance to emerge as prime minister agreed on NATO membership, and thus support for Ukraine, rendering it a non-issue.

The sitting prime minister, controversial mostly because of her youth, remains popular but couldn’t sustain a plurality in the midst of a weak economy—yet she immediately and graciously conceded her loss and made the requisite homage to the virtues of democracy.

The populist candidate came in third but was happy for the increased strength in the parliament. A virtue of having multiple parties with a path to representation in the government is that it’s not winner-take-all.

Here’s the graphical breakdown:

A whopping ten parties will have representation. And, because there’s plausibility of winning seats, those who represent fringe views—whether from the left or the right—can go their own way rather than taking over the major parties. (The populist Finns are a bit hard to characterize, having far-right origins but have morphed into a more traditional nativist-populist party in recent years.)

Note also that there are 200 seats for a population of only ~5.54 million, or one representative for every ~27,706 people. Contrast that with 435 representatives for ~332 million, or one for every ~763,218 people here.