The Campaign

As Finland was heading towards the April 2019 parliamentary elections, it seemed certain that the election campaign would be dominated by a single topic – the future of the social and health services, the top priority of the Centre Party‐led cabinet, which also included the National Coalition and the Blue Reform. The planned reorganization of the health and social services would have brought about a larger role for the private sector in delivering such services (a key objective for the National Coalition) and the introduction of directly‐elected regional councils (a paramount objective of the Centre, which wins most of its vote in the rural provinces). By early 2019 the project had run into serious trouble in the Eduskunta, with even some backbench MPs on the governing side voicing strong criticism and indicating that they might not support the package. The final months leading up to the election saw a wave of scandals relating to nursing‐homes and other facilities operated by private companies: public authorities intervened, reprimanding companies for inadequate staffing and overall poor treatment of the occupants, and even enforcing the closure of some of the facilities. Finally, the project was buried on 8 March, with the prime minister, Juha Sipilä, immediately announcing the resignation of his government. Yet the campaign revolved around several themes, with a reform of the social and health‐care services in fact receiving only limited attention. It is possible that the governing parties, and particularly the National Coalition (seen as the ally of the private companies), wanted to divert attention to other topics. More surprising, however, was the strategy of the parliamentary opposition in not seeking to exploit the issue. Instead, the political left, the Social Democrats, the Green League, and the Left Alliance highlighted climate change, while speaking more broadly about equality, fairness, social security, and the need to invest in education (the Sipilä government had introduced cuts to the education budget). The trio of cabinet parties focused primarily on defending the government's track record on the economy and increasing the employment rate, while the Finns Party, predictably, emphasized immigration. The Centre and the National Coalition advocated tighter fiscal policies and warned the electorate about the perils of a big‐spending Social Democratic‐led cabinet. For example, in his 2018 May Day speech Antti Rinne, the chair of the Social Demo