The centre-right National Coalition Party, which won Sunday's parliamentary elections, is open to begin talks with all other parties about forming a government, according to the party's chair and presumed incoming prime minister, Petteri Orpo.
Orpo said he hopes that the parties will be able to leave in the past the exceptionally tough confrontations that became a feature of the election campaign.
"I want to have genuine discussions with all of the parties, and based on those discussions, a group will be selected to enter government formation negotiations," Orpo told Yle on Tuesday.
Plans to form a majority government may be tricky, as some parties have said they plan to stay in the opposition or are unwilling to form a government with the Finns party.
On the heels of a poor outcome at the polls on Monday, the Centre Party's chair, Annika Saarikko, said her party will join the opposition.
Decreased choices
Meanwhile, the chairs of the Centre, Greens and the Left Alliance — which all suffered poor results after serving in PM Sanna Marin's (SDP) coalition government — said it would be difficult for them to return to government after the poor election results.
Given the decreased prospective coalition partners, NCP leader Orpo is now faced with the difficult task of forming a new government. His first job will be to find common ground with various parties on important issues as well as to explore the prospect of drafting a government programme.
After that, Orpo will need to enter negotiations with his preferred coalition partners and set out a plan for the next four years.
His first task will be to choose a main partner, either the Finns Party or the SDP, both of which trailed just behind the NCP in the election.
This process is scheduled to begin next week, after the Easter break.
This week, Yle News released an election coverage special edition of the All Points North podcast. You can listen on this embedded player, on Yle Areena or via Spotify.
At this point, Orpo said he was not yet stating his position on possible government policies, but noted that the NCP's condition for joining the next government would be creating economic growth.
The party has set a goal of saving the state around six billion euros over the next four years. Orpo noted that goal can be achieved through savings, public sector enhancement and finance ministry-advocated measures to boost employment.
Like the outgoing PM Sanna Marin's government, Orpo said the NCP insists that Finland will be carbon neutral by the year 2035.
He added that he does not think the most important thing right now is to form a government as quickly as possible in these complicated times.
Yle asked whether he thinks it is realistic that the next coalition government will be in place by Midsummer.
"Let's hope so, but it's even more important to have a functioning government with a good programme," he said.
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