Prime Minister and National Coalition Party chair Petteri Orpo says changing Finland’s economic policy direction now would be a major mistake.
Speaking at a public event in Kirkkonummi, southern Finland, on Friday evening, Orpo said the current government programme was drawn up after roughly 15 years in which Finland had failed to achieve sustained economic growth.
That, he said, was why his government had introduced difficult reforms and sought to bring public finances under tighter control.
“Now this work is beginning to produce results. After years of sluggish growth, the Finnish economy is finally growing, strongly and across a broad front,” Orpo said.
He acknowledged that employment remains a problem.
“We are now moving in the right direction. Jobs and employment will follow, but that is still lagging behind. We have far too many unemployed people.”
Orpo said the National Coalition Party’s central objective was to ensure that Finland remains a prosperous Nordic welfare society in the future, with equal opportunities for people to build their own lives while ensuring that those in the weakest position are cared for.
He argued that the government had made the right choices and warned against reversing them.
“Changing course now would be a major mistake. If the direction changes, power changes hands, taxes start going up and reforms are reversed, Finland will stall again.”
Orpo rules out tax rises as the preferred solution
Looking ahead to the next parliamentary term, Orpo said the National Coalition Party has chosen not to seek higher taxes on citizens and would instead prefer to balance the public finances through spending cuts.
He put Finland’s annual public expenditure at around €160 billion and said savings of €9 billion would amount to roughly five per cent of that total.
“I believe that with 95 per cent, if things are done intelligently, we can meet the requirements of the welfare state. We can do things better and more efficiently. I argue that this can be done.”
Orpo contrasted his party’s approach with those of the opposition Social Democratic Party and Centre Party, as well as the Finns Party, which currently sits in government.
According to Orpo, the Social Democrats favour splitting fiscal adjustment roughly equally between tax increases and spending cuts.
He argued that this would mean €4–5 billion in additional taxes.
“This country would grind to a halt. That is such an enormous amount. We simply cannot afford it,” Orpo said.
He also claimed that the Centre Party would raise taxes by roughly a third of that amount, which he described as still “an absolutely enormous sum”.
Orpo said the Finns Party had also left the door open to higher taxation by proposing measures worth around €1 billion in additional taxes.
“When we go into the election, we will speak as the National Coalition Party”
With the parliamentary election drawing closer, Orpo said he is increasingly switching from his role as prime minister to that of party leader.
He said he was getting back into the habit of explaining what the National Coalition Party itself wants for Finland after the current government term.
“I will tell people what the National Coalition Party wants to do next for Finland and for Finns,” he said.
Orpo said the election campaign would give the party greater freedom to emphasise its own values and priorities rather than speaking primarily through the government programme.
“Now we have the freedom to talk about what we want and about our own values. When we go into the election, we will speak as the National Coalition Party and be National Coalition Party members. We have fine values going back 110 years, and they endure.”