Thread by @KristiRaik

Exciting parliamentary #elections in #Finland today, coming 4 weeks after elections in #Estonia. Being a keen observer of both countries, some comparative remarks.🧶

1. Strong women played a prominent role in both campaigns. Both PMs @kajakallas and @MarinSanna have been international stars with a similar security agenda: Ukraine must win, Russia must leave all territories of 🇺🇦. Marin had an important role in taking Finland swiftly to NATO.

2. However, if they were in the same country, Kallas and Marin would hardly form a coalition together due to differences over economic policy – just as it would/will be difficult in Finland to form a coalition between right-wing National Coalition and Marin’s Social Democrats.

3. Left vs right has been the dominant dividing line in 🇫🇮 elections and likely to determine the next government, with public economy and debt at the centre of heated debates. In 🇪🇪 the dominant and heated division was between liberal vs conservative values

and hence coalition talks are going on among liberal parties, incl. right (Reform Party), left (Social Democrats) and centre (Eesti 200) of the spectrum.

4. 🇫🇮 remains a more consensus-oriented society than 🇪🇪, especially on security. In Estonia, even in the context of war in Europe, the main opposition party fiercely challenged the government on security and defence. In Finland, security got little attention in election debates.

5. One can say that Estonia has no proper left-wing and Finland no proper right-wing. Just different degrees of right-wing in 🇪🇪 and degrees of left-wing, all defending the welfare state in 🇫🇮. But

the difference between the two countries in this regard has diminished during the past decades. Both Estonian and Finnish politics has moved more to the centre, with new radical right being radical along liberal-conservative rather than traditional right-left axis. END