Sanna Marin's Election Loss in Finland: What Happened?

Sanna Marin's Social Democratic party increased its vote share and number of MPs in Finland's election, but the party was defeated by the conservative National Coalition party (NCP) and the far-right Finns party. Petteri Orpo, the leader of the NCP, is likely to be the next prime minister and may seek to form a government with the Finns party. The right successfully leaned into concerns about Finland's growing national debt and persuaded voters that it was time to cut social programs to balance the books. The result reflects a general trend of the right doing well in European politics, while classic center-left parties are seeing their vote share hold up above disastrous levels.