Who is Petteri Orpo, the low-key conservative who could be Finland’s next PM?

HELSINKI – With his calm demeanour, sober suits and an insistence on budget austerity, conservative leader Petteri Orpo might not appear the most exciting prospect on Finland’s political landscape.

But the 53-year-old could well be the country’s next prime minister after his centre-right National Coalition Party beat out charismatic incumbent Sanna Marin of the Social Democrats in Sunday’s general election.

Mr Orpo, who was first elected to Parliament in 2007 and has previously served as finance, interior and agriculture minister, is a politician to his core.

Raised in south-western Finland, he became involved in student politics while studying economics at university. It ended up taking up so much of his time that it took him 12 years to graduate with a master’s degree in political science, majoring in economics.

Throughout the election campaign, he has kept his eye firmly focused on the country’s finances – something he claimed that Ms Marin had neglected.

“The most important thing the National Coalition wants to change in Finland is that we stop increasing debt,” Mr Orpo told AFP before the vote.

His election – and attention to budgetary rigour – could spark some concern in the European Union, with Finland one of the “frugal” countries that have called on southern European countries to rein in deficits.

Considered a pragmatic leader who listens and aims to be inclusive, Mr Orpo took over the party leadership in 2016 when he unseated former prime minister Alexander Stubb, who suffered an election defeat in 2015.

Following in his father’s footsteps into the conservative party, the well-liked Mr Orpo has been described as amiable and calm – so much so that some have questioned how the married father of two teens has lasted so long in the fiery world of politics.

While that calm usually plays in his favour in heated election debates, Mr Orpo can get put on the back foot by more aggressive public speakers like Ms Marin.

In October 2022, he was accused of belittling women and had to apologise after referring to Ms Marin and Finance Minister Annika Saarikko’s “shrieking” in a debate.

Mr Orpo also made headlines in December 2022 when he criticised Centre Party Defence Minister Antti Kaikkonen’s decision to take paternity leave amid Finland’s Nato bid, a comment that was interpreted as enforcing negative stereotypes about fathers.

The National Coalition has attacked Ms Marin’s government for what it deems an irresponsible rise in public debt.

Finland’s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio has risen from 64 per cent in 2019 to 73 per cent under Ms Marin’s leadership.

The National Coalition aims to address this by cutting spending by €6 billion (S$8.7 billion), which Finland’s outgoing prime minister has slammed as “taking from the poor to give to the rich”.

“I want to fix our economy. I want to boost economic growth,” Mr Orpo told AFP last Saturday, adding that Ms Marin “is not worried about the economy. She is not worried about debt”.

While Mr Orpo in 2017 ruled out a government partnership with the far-right Finns Party, in this election campaign he has said that he will keep his options open, despite clashing with the party on immigration, the EU and climate policy.

“In my opinion, Finland cannot survive without more labour immigration. I want to keep Finland an open, international country,” he told AFP.

But “at the same time as we are increasing labour immigration, we have to maintain a strict asylum policy and keep immigration under control overall”, he added.

Mr Orpo is a fan of hiking, the outdoors and fishing, and is known to have taken snowmobile trips with his party colleague, President Sauli Niinisto, in Lapland. AFP