Last weekend’s elections to the European Parliament saw anti-immigration forces advance across much of the EU. Far-right parties are now set to collectively control roughly one quarter of all seats, including ones with neo-Nazi connections like Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and Cyprus’s National Popular Front (ELAM).

In general, northern Europe bucked this grim trend — and the news from Finland was particularly bright. While the far-right Finns Party has been part of the government for the last year, in Sunday’s vote the big winner was on the other end of the political spectrum. The socialist Left Alliance won 17.3 percent of the vote and elected three MEPs, putting it in second place behind the center-right National Coalition. The Finns Party lost a seat as its vote tumbled from 13.8 to 7.6 percent.

At the head of the Left Alliance’s charge was party leader Li Andersson, who personally won 247,600 votes — one in seven of all ballots cast in Finland. It’s the most votes a Finnish legislative candidate has ever received — and the best vote for the Finnish far left since 1979. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a left-wing candidate, she firmly rejected the ongoing attacks on workers and immigrants in Finland and across Europe. But her victorious campaign also called for sanctions against Israel over its war on Gaza, restrictions on nuclear weapons, and for nuance in international relations. Despite making calls that have enraged the right-wing press — such as allowing Left Alliance MPs a free vote in Parliament on whether Finland should join NATO — 25 percent of all Finnish voters have come to view her as the most competent party leader in the country.