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.
