Finland went to the polls last weekend in the context of a war to the east, a rising cost of living, and growing inequality. The mood was cynical, and Finns delivered a harsh rebuke to the ruling Social Democrat–led coalition. The results have potentially opened the door to power for the far-right.

Two parties managed to garner slightly more than 20 percent of the overall vote. They were the National Coalition Party (NCP) with 20.8 percent and the far-right Finns Party with 20.1 percent. Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Social Democratic Party (SDP) slightly increased its vote but only came in third with 19.9 percent of the vote share. All of the SDP’s current coalition partners — the Centre Party, the Greens, the Left Alliance, and the Swedish People’s Party — lost votes.

Coalition governments are the norm in Finland, and the NCP’s leader Petteri Orpo now faces a momentous choice. He can invite the Finns Party into his new government as the junior partner, which runs the not-so-serious risk of alienating the NCP’s wealthy, pro-EU base. Or he can attempt to entice Sanna Marin’s SDP into an “adults in the room” blue-red coalition.