Petteri Orpo

Antti Petteri Orpo (; born 3 November 1969) is a Finnish politician serving as the prime minister of Finland since 2023 and as the leader of the National Coalition Party since 2016. He briefly served as speaker of the Parliament of Finland after the 2023 parliamentary election.

He served as Deputy Prime Minister of Finland from 2017 to 2019, Minister of Finance from 2016 to 2019, Minister of the Interior from 2015 to 2016 and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry from 2014 to 2015. On 2 April 2023, Orpo's National Coalition Party won the 2023 parliamentary election with a plurality of 20.8% of the vote and 48 seats. Orpo garnered over 17,000 votes in his district.

Early life and education
Antti Petteri Orpo was born on 3 November 1969 in Köyliö, Finland. His father, Hannu Orpo, was a politician and member of the National Coalition Party. He passed the Finnish matriculation exams and graduated from Köyliön lukio. Later Orpo earned a master's degree in political science from the University of Turku. Orpo attended Finland's mandatory national armed service and became a reserve officer. His current reserve rank is captain.

Political career

Minister of the Interior

During his tenure as Minister of the Interior, Orpo received support for his handling of the 2015 migration crisis from coalition partners in the anti-immigration Finns Party, as well as from opposition lawmakers.

Minister of Finance
In May 2016, Orpo announced that he would challenge the chair of the National Coalition Party and incumbent Minister of Finance Alexander Stubb in June's party conference. At the time, Orpo joined second-term parliamentarian Elina Valtonen in seeking to replace Stubb. In contrast to polyglot and outspoken Stubb, Orpo was widely seen as a careful consensus-seeker with little experience of international politics. Orpo received 441,4 votes against Stubb's 361 and was thus elected as the new chair for the party. Orpo soon announced that he would take Stubb's seat as the Minister of Finance. He was officially appointed as the Minister of Finance on 22 June 2016.

In June 2017, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and Orpo announced said they could not cooperate with their parties' third coalition partner, the Finns Party, anymore, citing differences in core values and in the immigration and EU policies. For both Sipilä and Orpo, at stake were major healthcare and local government reform, which were key to their plan to balance public finances.

In addition to his national political roles, Orpo co-chaired (alongside Valdis Dombrovskis) the EPP Economic and Financial Affairs Ministers Meeting, which gathers the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) ministers ahead of meetings of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN).

Opposition politics
In December 2019 Orpo attempted a vote of no-confidence in the incumbent government. This would then cause new elections, which Orpo hoped on winning. The incumbent government was accused of malpractice in responding to problems in the labor market. Later, Prime Minister Antti Rinne resigned, and Kulmuni publicly refused to join the National Coalition Party's plan of premature elections.

Prime Minister of Finland (2023–present)

2023 parliamentary elections
On 2 April 2023, Orpo's National Coalition Party won the 2023 Finnish parliamentary election. The party had led the polls since mid-2021 and finished first, with 20.8% of the votes and 48 seats in the parliament, increasing their total by 10 seats. This was the party's third highest result in its history. Orpo will begin government formation talks when the new parliament and President convene the week after Easter and will name him as the lead negotiator.

Orpo campaigned on a platform of reducing Finland's government debt and the yearly budget deficit as well as reducing income taxes. He defines himself as a "fiscal conservative."

Orpo was elected by parliamentary groups as the Speaker of the Parliament of Finland on 12 April on a temporary basis until a new government is formed.

On 27 April, it was announced that Orpo would begin final negotiations with the Finns Party, the Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats to form a coalition government. This coalition of parties was confirmed on 15 June, with the government formation, including the names of its ministers, announced on 17 June. His party won eight cabinet posts, the Finns Party seven (including the Ministries of Finance, the Interior and Justice), while the Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats shared the remaining five. Petteri Orpo heads Finland's most right-wing government since the end of the Second World War

Tenure

Orpo became Prime Minister of Finland on 20 June 2023. The government's roadmap makes cutting public spending a priority. Petteri Orpo announced a €6 billion cut in the state budget, stating that the greatest danger threatening Finland was "the debt crisis" (it stands at 74% of GDP), and reforms, some of which "are going to hurt".

The coalition is betting on unprecedented cuts in social benefits. For example, the conditions for receiving unemployment benefit will be tightened, a one-day waiting period will be introduced at the start of sick leave, and access to housing benefit will be restricted. In addition, the right to strike will be restricted and a fine introduced for unauthorized work stoppages. The government agreement also provides for easier redundancies and the use of fixed-term contracts, while increasing investment in vocational training.

These announcements were welcomed by employers, who see in the program the reforms they have been "demanding for decades", but the unions denounced "an attack on employees". While the center-left and left-wing parties also denounced a "difficult program, especially for people on low and middle incomes" (Sanna Marin) and "the most anti-worker government in Finnish history" (Li Andersson), Party of Finland leader Riikka Purra declared that she "saw no divergence between the interests of employers and employees".

With regard to immigration, reception conditions will be restricted. Asylum will no longer be granted on a temporary basis, and six full years' residence in Finland will be required to apply for a permanent residence permit. Family reunification and access to naturalization will be restricted. In addition, the country will only accept 500 refugees per year under the relocation scheme, compared with 1,050 at present. Immigrant workers will no longer have the same social rights as permanent residents, and will have to leave the country within three months of being laid off.

During the first month of his cabinet, there were numerous scandals regarding past writings by the Finns Party ministers, including the Deputy Prime Minister Riikka Purra. The scandal around Nazi-connected joking and potential connections to neo-Nazi organisations of Minister of Economic Affairs Vilhelm Junnila led to him resigning. Orpo's Cabinet's party Swedish People's Party of Finland have criticized Orpo for too weak leadership during the Junnila scandal. Orpo's leadership among the various controversies was also questioned and criticized widely in Finnish and international media.

Other activities

European Union organizations
 European Investment Bank (EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2016–2019)
 European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Member of the Board of Governors (2016–2019)

International organizations
 Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2016–2019)
 European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2016–2019)
 Joint World Bank-IMF Development Committee, Member (2018–2019)
 Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), World Bank Group, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2016–2019)
 Nordic Investment Bank (NIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2016–2019)
 World Bank, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2016–2019)

References

External links

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1969 births
Living people
People from Köyliö
Prime Ministers of Finland
Deputy Prime Ministers of Finland
Speakers of the Parliament of Finland
Ministers of Agriculture of Finland
Ministers of the Interior of Finland
Ministers of Finance of Finland
National Coalition Party politicians
Members of the Parliament of Finland (2007–2011)
Members of the Parliament of Finland (2011–2015)
Members of the Parliament of Finland (2015–2019)
Members of the Parliament of Finland (2019–2023)
Members of the Parliament of Finland (2023–2027)
20th-century Finnish people
University of Turku alumni