Finnish PM Stubb concedes election defeat

Finland's conservative Prime Minister Alexander Stubb conceded his left-right government's defeat in Sunday's general election at the hands of the opposition Centre Party, after a campaign dominated by the country's struggling economy.

Stubb conceded defeat when some 70 percent of votes had been counted.

"It seems as though the Centre has won. Congratulations," Stubb told Finnish public radio and television YLE.

Centre Party leader Juha Sipila, a 53-year-old IT millionaire and newcomer to politics, is widely expected to become Finland's next prime minister.

His liberal-agrarian party was seen taking 46 of 200 seats in parliament, a YLE projection showed.

The Social Democrats were seen taking 37 seats, the same number as Stubb's conservative National Coalition Party, while the rightwing eurosceptic Finns Party was credited with 35 seats.

"I'm really pleased with these results," Sipila said.

His first task will be to pick his coalition partners. Tradition dictates that the largest party takes the post of prime minister and forms a government with the other largest parties to obtain a majority in parliament.
Several weeks of thorny negotiations are expected before Sipila is able to present a coalition, and he has not yet revealed which parties he would like to collaborate with.

Sipila campaigned heavily on his business know-how, vowing to get the eurozone country's economy back on track after three years of recession and stagnation, austerity and failed reforms.

Voters were disgruntled with Stubb's four-party left-right government coalition, which has been paralyzed by internal discord and unable to push through any real policy changes.

"We need in the near future new growth in employment and we also need a leadership (culture) change in Finland and a lot has to happen to take Finland out of the crisis," Sipila told AFP after Sunday's results came in.

"The Centre Party will form the next government, but its coalition parties are too close to call," Helsinki University political history professor Juhana Aunesluoma told AFP.

"Very difficult negotiations can be expected with the conservatives or the Social Democrats," he added.

Elected to parliament in 2011, Sipila became Centre party leader in 2012 when he was still virtually unknown to most Finns.

His party, which has been in the opposition since 2011, has however been a dominant force in Finnish politics, fostering 12 prime ministers and three presidents.
The election campaign was overshadowed by economic worries.

The country was long a top performer in the eurozone, hailed by Germany and credit rating agencies for running a tight economic ship. But it has failed to adapt to a rapidly changing economic climate.

The two pillars of its economy, the forestry sector and technology industry led by one-time giant Nokia, have shrunk dramatically, while two of Finland's biggest trading partners, Russia and the eurozone, are slogging through their own economic woes.

Unemployment is at its highest level since 2003, at 9.2 percent.

"The main point in this election is the bad economic situation in Finland, so I voted for people I believe are experts in the economy," 64-year-old Jorma Mahonen said after casting his ballot in Helsinki.

Rafael Donner, 25, was pessimistic.

"I don't think this election is going to change much. Society won't accept that GDP can't grow forever," he said.

"I believe we in Finland have enough. I look at my friends and they all have iPhones, go on holiday to nice places, and have brunches every weekend."

Faced with Finland's serious economic woes, "the government programme will be quite difficult to create," Aunesluoma predicted.

Sipila has vowed a series of economic reforms to get Finland back on its feet.

They include easing up on bureaucracy, tax breaks for newly-created jobs and a reform of unemployment benefits.

He has promised to create 200,000 private sector jobs in 10 years. Part of the plan includes freeing up cash by cutting hundreds of thousands of jobs in the public sector, mainly by not replacing those who retire.

"We need... new entrepreneurship and new jobs in the whole of Finland. We need bold solutions (and) goal-oriented leadership," he said on the eve of the election.