AFP - The Conservative members of the alliance outgoing government won a narrow victory in Sunday's parliamentary Finland, where nationalists have achieved a historic breakthrough by becoming the third political force.
Of the 200 parliamentary seats, the Election Commission has granted 44 to the National Coalition (Conservative), 42 Social Democratic party (SDP) which was in opposition and 39 to right-wing nationalist True Finns who are much better though what they had been led to expect the polls.
In terms of votes, the National Coalition won 20.4%, 19.1% before the SDP and the True Finns 19.0%, according to the electoral commission has registered a high turnout of 70.4% against 67.9 % during the 2007 legislative elections.
The fourth largest party, the Center led by outgoing Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi, won 35 seats with 15.8% of votes.
"My dear friends, we wrote the story!" Ignited the head of the National Coalition Jyrki Katainen, which should become the next prime minister.
The True Finns won them 34 seats compared to the outgoing Parliament. From the smallest parliamentary party, they become the third largest.
This result is a personal victory for their charismatic leader Timo Soini has proposed a populist, eurosceptic who has managed the controversial debate on immigration.
"Sometimes it pays to keep his conviction, even if it runs into an obstacle and if it is mocked," he told Mr.Soini his supporters.
"The True Finns have now a deputy in every riding!", He was welcomed.
The True Finns are the only party to have improved over the last legislative elections.
The decline most cooking is the center becomes the fourth political force in the new Parliament, losing 16 seats.
"Of course it's a disappointment, but people have told us what they wanted and we must listen," said Ms Kiviniemi."The conclusion is obvious, with such results, we find ourselves in the opposition," she lamented on air on national television YLE.
She will probably leave the head of government to his Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen because "traditionally, training agree that the leader of the party best represented in terms of seats forms the government," he told AFP political analyst Ilkka Ruostetsaari , University of Tampere.
The National Coalition has been at the helm of several governments in Finland, but until then she has never represented the first force in Parliament.
Mr.Katainen focused during the campaign a very pro-European, particularly on financial aid to members of the EU hit by the crisis. However, the True Finns have made this topic an impassable barrier, insisting that "everything else was negotiable," but not this.
If he becomes Prime Minister, Mr Katainen must therefore be a coalition government, including the SDP would be for business.
For the Socialist leader Jutta Urpilainen, which was so disparaged because of a lack of image and difficulty to appear natural and sincere in public, this result also constitutes a victory.She had been instructed to straighten a party losing ground after he slipped into opposition in 2007.
"I am pleased that our message on employment and justice has been heard by the voters," she said.
"Let's all have fun tonight because tomorrow we go back to work, Finland needs of the Social Democrats!", She proposed to his followers.
The new government should be formed before the end of May.
