FISSURE

Finnish Coalition Government Dissolves Over Anti-Immigrant Hardliner

New far-right leader of nationalist party pushes center-right gov’t to the brink.

Finland’s center-right coalition government is breaking up due to the selection of a far-right anti-immigration activist as leader of one of the three ruling parties. The nationalist Finns Party recently selected as its leader Jussi Halla-aho, a Euroskeptic member of the European Parliament who, in 2012, was fined by the country’s supreme court for his comments linking Somalis to theft and Islam to pedophilia. Upon taking power, Halla-aho suggested he would not cooperate with the ruling center-right coalition, especially on issues like immigration. After meeting Monday with Halla-aho, both Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and Finance Minister Petteri Orpo announced that the coalition will end: “Discussions held. Our joint proposal to Centre/NCP Parliamentary groups: no ground to continue cooperation with a Finns Party led by Halla-aho,” they both tweeted.