Finnish Left Leader: The Far Right Is Attacking Workers
Minja Koskela is leader of Finland’s Left Alliance. She spoke to Jacobin about how the right-wing-populist Finns Party is using its place in government to attack labor and public services, and how her party is resisting austerian dogmas.
Finland’s Left Alliance leader Minja Koskela believes it was a mistake to think the populist far right would have any solidarity toward working people. (Courtesy of Elisa Salomäki)
- Interview by
- Mike Watson
Left-wingers across the West often look to Nordic states for inspiration, given their historical success in building an extensive welfare model. However, these countries are politically divided, and since 2023, Finland has been ruled by a coalition of center-right and right-wing populist parties. In government, they have adopted a slash-and-burn policy toward public spending, including a recent debt brake that threatens perpetual austerity by limiting borrowing.
Minja Koskela is the leader of a quite different party: Finland’s Left Alliance. It served in Sanna Marin’s cabinet from 2019 to 2023 under then-leader Li Andersson, who went on to score a historically high vote share in the 2024 EU elections. In an interview, Koskela told Mike Watson what the Finnish experience can teach socialists internationally about fighting the Right, and how today’s American politics are seen from Finland.
You became leader of the Left Alliance in April 2024, following the leadership contest held after Li Andersson stepped down. What have been your main challenges in this role — and as you see it, what have you succeeded in doing?
I took over the leadership in October 2024. The leadership campaign and the election were well-spirited and productive. As candidates, we toured together across Finland and had a great time. Our party had three good, competitive candidates to choose from and in the end, I think, we came out even stronger and more united.
I’ve been asked many times how I’m going to fill the shoes left by Li Andersson, our popular former chair, who I admire and respect greatly. And I’ve always said that I’m not even going to try to fill her shoes but lace up my own sneakers and start my own run.
The challenge in following a long-time, well-regarded chair is obvious. But I’ve been fortunate enough to have great support from our members. During my first year, we achieved a clear victory in local elections. We now have more members in city and county councils than we had before. Party membership is increasing and we’re polling at around 10 percent nationally, which is almost three points up compared to the 2023 general election result. So, I’d say we’re on the right track.
The Left in the UK, US, and other Western countries sees the Nordic left, and often particularly the Finnish left, as a beacon of hope due to historically high government funding of public services (the so-called “Nordic model”). Yet the current government, run by Petteri Orpo’s National Coalition Party in close collaboration with the right-wing populist Finns Party, has slashed spending. What would you say to left-wingers elsewhere about the Finnish situation, particularly in relation to public spending?
Finland today is a great example of what an alliance between the traditional center right and the populist far right brings. Even though the populist far-right panders to the working class and claims to know the struggles of regular people, they’ve joined the center right in cutting social security by historic proportions and giving tax breaks to the rich. Also, they’ve weakened the bargaining power of unions in a way that will take a long time to repair, if it’s even possible. And even though the center right often claims the virtues of openness and opportunity, they’ve been bogged down by the far right in endless racism scandals and created an atmosphere hostile to minorities and foreigners.
When it comes to the economy, this right-wing government has demonstrated what happens when you try to lower public debt by haphazardly cutting spending. The economy tanks and public debt keeps on growing. I’m just as worried about high public debt as anyone, but this is not the way to bring it down.
So, I’d say the lesson to take from the Finnish right-wing coalition government is that it was a mistake for anyone to think the populist far right would have any solidarity toward working people or that cutting public spending would solve the issue of high public debt. What we’ve seen is that regular people have suffered, and the rich have gotten richer, all the while high public debt is still not solved.
Recently Finland’s main parties agreed to a debt brake: a pact intended to reduce then cap Finland’s public debt. The brake will lead to spending agreements made in unison, which will potentially limit parties’ ability to increase public spending in the future. The Left Alliance alone opted out. Can you explain what the debt break means for Finland and why your party so strongly opposes it?
The debt brake is essentially a limit on public spending by capping deficits. We have a similar system in the EU fiscal rules dictating the size of deficits a member state can run and at what rate a member state should lower the debt-to-GDP ratio if it exceeds 60 or 90 percent. Now, this new national debt brake will be more constricting than the EU fiscal rules. The national debt brake demands smaller deficits and a faster pace in lowering the debt-to-GDP ratio than the EU. Why would we voluntarily put ourselves in such a position?
And crucially, the national debt brake, as was now agreed to by the other parties, does not allow flexibility during an economic downturn. The EU fiscal rules, on the other hand, do allow at least some flexibility at a time of high unemployment, for example. Meaning that it leaves at least some room for countercyclical policies when the economy slows down. One of the biggest issues with the new national debt brake is that it has no such flexibility.
This can mean that we are looking at years, even decades, of austerity that will stagnate the economy further and make everyone worse off. And most importantly, it will not achieve what it’s set out to, namely, reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio. It might make it worse.
Our government should just look at Germany, where they’re abolishing a similar debt brake policy because public investment has been seriously neglected causing tremendous issues. And they should listen to all the experts who now agree that severe austerity during the euro crisis was a mistake.
And to make it clear, the Left Alliance opposed the current EU fiscal rules as well, because we think they’re too constricting already, but we lost the fight and therefore we’re now bound by them.
Finland has a general election coming in April 2027 at the latest. Polls since last year have put Antti Lindtman’s Social Democrats in pole position, meaning at least an end to the rule of the current slash-and-burn administration. What do you see as the key policy areas the election will be fought over — and can you forecast the Left Alliance’s main policy concerns?
The next general election is still far away, and anything can happen between now and then. Still, the main issue will probably be the economy. How can we boost growth, increase productivity, and tackle the issue of high debt? That’s a worthwhile discussion where we will be defending proper funding for public services like health care and education. The success of the Nordic model is due to strong, well-funded public services, which have produced a successful, stable, and well-educated society. Quality public services are the bedrock of well-being, which in turn supports a thriving economy.
Unfortunately, even the Social Democrats have agreed to the national debt brake and signaled that heavy budget cuts are coming should they win the election. We need to find ways to break this emerging consensus for austerity and convince voters that investing in people and public services is the way forward. At the same time, we need to focus on working toward decoupling economic growth from climate emissions, and aim to repair the damage done to the labor market and labor rights by the current right-wing government.
In the postwar period, Finland occupied a traditionally neutral role between Moscow and the West. Finland joining NATO in 2024 changed this. Since then, President Alexander Stubb has been seen as particularly close to Donald Trump, who many see as presiding over a dangerous unconstitutional and antidemocratic shift in his own country.
How do you see Finnish relations with the US, and if the Left Alliance joined a coalition government, would it approach things any differently?
I’m worried about the recent developments in America. To me, it seems like there’s an authoritarian bent to President Trump’s politics. He is using the armed forces to pursue internal political aims, he has no respect for the free press, and he does not care for the rule of law. In addition, America has, under the Trump presidency, steered away from a rules-based international order and toward a transactional strongman politics, which serves no one’s interests in the long run.
Even though we’re a small European nation with a long border with Russia, we must be able to hold on to our values of rule of law, free press, and the rules-based international order, and criticize the American president when he goes against them, as our party has done, and would continue to do if we took part in a coalition government.
The populist right has gained popular support across the West in the last few years, governing in Italy and the United States, and as a coalition partner in Finland. At the time of writing, right-wing populists lead opinion polls in the UK, France, and Germany.
Many readers are directly suffering under such governments (as foreigners, LGBTQ, or low-income people), or may do so in future. As leader of a left-wing party in a country governed by a de facto right-populist government, what hope do you see in the coming years, and what tactics might we use globally to realize such a hope?
This is an issue I think a lot about. Many are disillusioned by politics. They can’t see how politics could effect change for the better. And to be fair, changing the course of politics is not easy at all. It requires a lot of hard work together. But I do have hope for it, be it in Finland, elsewhere in Europe, or in the US.
We must show that voting for the Left will make your life better. We need to break free from the cynicism and distrust and outright hate that’s taken over and build something positive together. That means focusing on clear and concrete policies that change most people’s, if not everyone’s, lives for the better, while not succumbing to bickering and a sense of gloom. That’s certainly a key for the Left to win.
I think there is much we can learn, even here in Finland, from Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign in New York City. It’s not often that a mayoral race in the US causes ripples in Finland — but this one did.