Opposition gain, but Helsinki Govt still ahead

Press, 21 March 1979, Page 9

Opposition gain, but Helsinki Govt still ahead

NZPA-Reuter ' Helsinki Finland's ruling CentreLeft coalition looked likely to retain power with a reduced majority yesterday after two days of General Election saw the Opposition Conservatives making large gains. The final results are still subject to official confirmation, but the Conservatives have won 46 seats in the 200-member Eduskunta (Parliament), against the Social Democrats’ 52. Political sources said the Social Democrats, who run the coalition with the Communists, Centrists, and Liberals, would probably stay in power. But the Conservatives’ gains would put a brake on the Government’s socialist policies. Although the Conservatives were not expected to take any part in a coalition, their influence might affect the choice for Prime Minister, a post at present held by the Social

Democrats’ chairman (Mr Kalevi Sorsa) the sources said. After the preliminary result the Social Democrats still remained the biggest party in the single-chamber Parliament, but the Conservatives recorded their largest number of seats since the country’s independence from Czarist Russia in 1917. The Communist however, recorded their lowest number of seats since they became a fully-fledged political party in 1945. Finnish politicians have always kept a wary eye on the neighbouring Soviet Union. Recently the official Kremlin press has been hinting that trade and relations might be affected if the Conservatives were brought into the Government in any way. Moscow has in the past intimated that the Conservatives were lukewarm in their stated policy of reconciliation with the Soviet Union, something the Right has denied.