- cross-posted to:
- Finland
- electoralism@hexbear.net
- cross-posted to:
- Finland
- electoralism@hexbear.net
Finland headed to the polls on Sunday to elect thousands of councillors in a range of local and regional bodies.
The Social Democrats took a big win in the municipal elections, taking nearly one in four votes nationwide to push the National Coalition Party of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo into second place.
In the county council elections, for 21 regional bodies that arrange social and healthcare outside Helsinki, the SDP also topped the poll. The Centre Party recorded a good result in its rural heartlands to secure third spot.
Government parties did poorly, with all but the NCP losing support compared to the previous municipal elections in 2021. Turnout in the municipal election was 54.2 percent, while the county elections saw 51.7 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots.
The dual vote for municipal and county councils caused logistical issues for election officials, with counting slower than usual for Finland, where large numbers vote in advance and results are usually clear within a couple of hours of polls closing.
The Finns Party saw support collapse compared to the last municipal election, with the party nearly halving its vote from four years ago. They lost support in several towns that are seeing hospital services cut back as part of the central government’s savings drive.
read Erich Fromm - Escape From Freedom
it’s about being the side which lets people escape loneliness anxiety doubt by submitting to authority and dominate an “other”
that silences anxiety doubt and gives certainty. comfort > truth, to the person who can’t stand alone. blending in to a uniform collective is life on easy mode.
ours is the side which asks people to sit with that doubt anxiety loneliness and emerge a freethinker; scrutinize, examine, no easy way out; no authority to accept all from uncritically. as a freethinker in sweden said, “without doubt one is mad.” - Tage Danielsson.