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Orpo Cabinet | |
|---|---|
 77th Cabinet ofFinland | |
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| Date formed | 20 June 2023 |
| People and organisations | |
| Head of state | Sauli Niinistö Alexander Stubb |
| Head of government | Petteri Orpo |
| No. of ministers | 19 |
| Member parties | National Coalition Party Finns Party Swedish People's Party Christian Democrats |
| Status in legislature | |
| Opposition parties | Social Democratic Party Centre Party Left Alliance Green League Movement Now |
| History | |
| Election | 2023 |
| Predecessor | Marin cabinet |
TheOrpo cabinet is the 77thgovernment of Finland. It was formed following the2023 Finnish parliamentary election and succeeds theMarin cabinet led by theSocial Democrats and was formally appointed by President Sauli Niinistö on 20 June 2023. The cabinet is headed byPetteri Orpo and is a coalition between theNational Coalition Party,Finns Party, theSwedish People's Party, and theChristian Democrats.
Out of the total 19 ministerial posts, eight ministers are from the National Coalition, seven from the Finns, three from the Swedish People's Party, and one from the Christian Democrats.[1][2][3][4]
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(January 2025) |
Under the coalition deal, the Government has plans to tighten the rules for getting permanent residence and citizenship. Orpo Cabinet is aiming for 100,000 new people to become part of the workforce through, among other things, social security reforms and labor market reforms. The goal is, for example, to reduce the power of trade unions. The government increases funding for research and development and plans investments in rail traffic. In addition, the program aims to tighten Finland's criminal policy.[5]
Riikka Purra, the chair of the Finns Party, justified the party's joining the coalition government by saying that the government program tightens immigration policy and changes Finland's climate policy to be more realistic.Anna-Maja Henriksson, chair of the Swedish People's Party, emphasized that the government will not weaken the position of the Swedish language in Finland. During the government program negotiations, the Swedish People's Party was at odds with the Finns Party on many issues, and Henriksson admitted that it is surprising that the party ended up in the same government as the Finns Party.[5]
On 27 June 2023, theGreen League,Left Alliance, andSocial Democratic Party decided to propose avote of no confidence againstVilhelm Junnila due to his connections to far-right extremism. On 28 June, theCentre Party announced their support for the vote of no confidence.[6] Ahead of the vote, the leader of theSwedish People's Party,Anna-Maja Henriksson, suggested that the Finns could replace Junnila with another person. The suggestion was declined byRiikka Purra, the leader ofFinns Party. She had threatened to dissolve the government in a private meeting between the governing political parties' leaders, if Junnila had failed to pass the vote.[7]
In the vote held by the parliament on 28 June 2023, 95 Members of Parliament voted in favor of Junnila, while 86 voted against. Three MPs abstained from voting, and 15 were absent. The vote created a division within the government, as seven MPs of the government coalition partner, the Swedish People's Party, voted against Junnila, and three abstained.[8] Purra commented afterwards that the Swedish People's Party's decision to vote against their minister had "wounded the government" and that similar conduct could not continue in the future.[9]
After the vote, there were further controversies on Junnila's past actions, including his past motion that Finland should promote contraception and "climate abortions" in "the underdeveloped societies of Africa" in order to battle curbing population growth and enhance living conditions on the African continent. The motion was deemed outrageous by another coalition partner, the anti-abortionChristian Democrats.[10] On 30 June 2023, Junnila announced that he would resign.[11] He was succeeded byWille Rydman on 6 July 2023.[12]
In June 2023, it was widely noted in the media that theMinister of the InteriorMari Rantanen,Minister of JusticeLeena Meri,Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign TradeVille Tavio andMinister of FinanceRiikka Purra had repeatedly suggested in parliament and on social media that ethnic Finns were being demographically replaced in Finland through large-scale immigration by the political elite.[13] For example, Rantanen had often used thehashtag: #väestönvaihto (a Finnish equivalent of theGreat Replacement) onTwitter. Ahead of the2023 Finnish parliamentary election, she had also written a brief about her candidacy on her own website in which she remarked on immigration as such: "we must not be so blue-eyed (aFinnish term for "naive") that soon we won't be blue-eyed any longer (a common feature of the ethnicFinnish people)".[14]
According to researcher Niko Pyrhönen, the use of the term "väestönvaihto" is not an accident, but a very conscious choice, as there are countless other expressions that could be used to talk about the changing population of Finland.[15] TheFinnish Security and Intelligence Service considers theGreat Replacement conspiracy theory one of the most noteworthy ideological motivators of far-right terrorism.[16]
After a heated discussion on social media, Purra, Meri and Rantanen stated on Twitter that they don't believe inconspiracy theories, stating that they only "…believe in the statistics".[17] Prime Minister Orpo commented the controversy by saying that the usage of the word "väestönvaihto" was not enough to shake his confidence in any minister and instead called for more understanding of the context in which the word had been said in.[18]
On 2 July 2023, Ida Erämaa, journalist ofIltalehti, published a column, in which she criticized the Finns Party politicians for trying to prevent the media from writing about the party's connections to right-wing extremism.[19] Afterwards, Erämaa was subjected to a large-scale harassment campaign on social media, with many comments focusing on Erämaa's persona and private life. Among the bunch were certain politicians from the governing parties, including MPsSebastian Tynkkynen,Wille Rydman from the Finns andTere Sammallahti from theNCP.[20] Erämaa was supported by the Union of Journalists in Finland and the Association of Editors, among others, who urged the politicians of the Finns and National Coalition Party to respect the freedom of the press.[21]
On 6 July, theCouncil of Europe'sCommissioner for Human Rights,Dunja Mijatović, released a statement in which she called on the Finnish authorities "…to clearly condemn the smear campaign and any violent online threats made against journalist Ida Erämaa, to investigate the incident and provide any assistance that she may need”.[22]
In July 2023, Purra's online comments written prior to her political career, onJussi Halla-aho'sScripta blog in January–October 2008, emerged in thenews media. In the comments, using the usernameriikka, she frequently used derogatory language and slurs about immigrants,romanis, ethnic minorities andsexual minorities. She, in one comment, wrote: "Anyone feel like spitting on beggars and beating nigger children today in Helsinki?" And, in another comment, she called the Turkish "monkeys".[23][24][25]
Purra originally refused to confirm whether she was the user behind the nickname.[26] However, after the comments were condemned by some representatives from the governing parties and PresidentSauli Niinistö called for the government to adopt a clear zero-tolerance stance on racism, Purra apologized for the comments, she, however, said in a press conference that she has no intention of resigning from her position. She also stated in the same press conference that she does not regret the actions that she made in the past.[27] Soon after, Purra's newer writings from 2019 started to circulate on social media, in which she referred to women in theburqa as "unrecognizable black bags" in the context of criticizing the clothing practice as dehumanizing and mysogynistic. Prime Minister Orpo called an excerpt from the writings unacceptable, but considered that Purra's earlier apology for her writings in 2008 was enough.[28] Orpo later clarified that he considers her writings to be an advocation for women's rights.[29]
By 13 July 2023, all opposition parties had demanded thatSpeaker of the ParliamentJussi Halla-aho recall parliament from summer break to hold amotion of no confidence for Purra.[30] On 15 July 2023, Halla-aho responded by stating that the matter wasn't urgent enough to facilitate a recalling of parliament.[31]
According to a survey conducted 14–19 July 2023, 47% of Finland's populace thought that Purra should resign, while 40% didn't.[32]
In June 2023, 49% of Finns predicted that the government would not be able to finish its four-year term, while 28% said that it would.[33] In July 2023, the percentage of those who predicted that the government would not be able to finish its term rose to 56%, while 23% thought that it would finish its term.[32] Furthermore, 32% respondents thought that the government should resign immediately, while 52% thought that it shouldn't.[32]
According to a survey conducted in August 2023, 23.6% of Finns were satisfied with the activities of the Orpo Cabinet, while 61.7% were not.[34]
Despite the above-mentioned opinion polls, the support of the two largest government parties, the National Coalition Party and the Finns Party, has remained stable after the elections. For example, inYle's poll in February 2024, the National Coalition was the most popular party with 22.4% supporting it, the Social Democrats the second most popular with 20.4% support, and the Finns Party the third most popular with 20.0% support.[35] This has been considered a sign in various op-eds that the opposition is unable to offer and convey a decent enough alternative to the government's policy.[36][37][38]
The Finns Party polled 5% points lower in July 2024, with only 15.6% support remaining.[39]
| Preceded by | Petteri Orpo's cabinet 2023 — | Succeeded by Incumbent |
 Governments ofmember states of the European Union | |
|---|---|
