Petteri Orpo was sworn in as prime minister of Finland’s new ruling coalition that has set out to fix the Nordic country’s deteriorating public finances and boost growth.
President Sauli Niinisto appointed Orpo’s government on Tuesday after the former finance chief and the head of the conservative National Coalition Party was approved by the Finnish parliament as the head of the new ruling coalition.
Orpo’s pro-business party mirrored last year’s success of its Swedish counterpart by winning the general election in April to oust Social Democratic premier Sanna Marin. Having capitalized on voters’ anxiety over the deepening public debt of the northernmost euro area member, the 53-year-old forged a four-party coalition that also includes the far-right Finns Party, pledging austerity and growth measures, job creation as well as tighter immigration.
Finns Party leader Riikka Purra became the Nordic country’s next finance minister, while other key appointments include National Coalition’s deputy leader Elina Valtonen as foreign minister and former justice minister Antti Hakkanen as defense minister of the newest member of the NATO military alliance.
Following the announcement of the government program on Friday, the coalition immediately faced criticism over some of its wording related to central bank’s autonomy. In a letter co-signed by central bank Governor Olli Rehn, the ruling bloc was told the program violates national and European legislation by threatening central bank independence.
“We have to act according to the law and regulations in everything,” Orpo told reporters in Helsinki on Tuesday. “Let’s figure it out calmly and if there’s a mistake, we’ll fix it.”
