BERLIN, April 18 (UPI) -- A nationalist party strongly opposed to helping debt-laden EU members made big gains in Finland's parliamentary elections, a development that sowed fresh insecurity across Europe's financial markets.
Support for the ultra-conservative True Finns nearly quintupled in Sunday's vote, from 4 percent to 19 percent, making it the third-biggest party and a possible coalition partner in a future Finnish government.
The Center Party of Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi suffered a major setback, dropping more than 7 points to less than 16 percent. Kiviniemi said Sunday she would go into opposition.
"It was expected that the True Finns make election gains but this big surge is a surprise," Tom Tohtua, a management consultant from Helsinki, said in a telephone interview.
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Led by populist leader Timo Soini, the True Finns have in the past rallied against too much immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage. Their biggest opponent, however, seems to be Brussels.
Soini doesn't want to hand Finnish money to debt-laden member states such as Portugal, Ireland and Greece. He's also opposed to the European Stability Mechanism, a wide-ranging eurozone bailout fund, agreed to by EU leaders at a recent summit in Brussels.
This comes as Finland is enjoying relatively stable economic growth and sound finances. The Finnish budget deficit will shrink to 1.6 percent of gross domestic product this year, the European Commission has predicted -- a comfortable debt rate compared to the body's average of 5.1 percent.
Thanks to a populist campaign, Soini has managed to attract significant voter support. His clientele, analysts say, includes people frustrated with the previous coalition government or concerned that the Finnish economy, plagued by inefficiently handled EU bailouts, could take a turn for the worse.
The difficult task of trying to contain Soini and his True Finns falls to Jyrki Katainen, 39, Finland's finance minister and the country's likely future prime minister. Katainen's center-right National Coalition won 20.4 percent -- the biggest share of the vote -- handing him the mandate to lead coalition talks.
A future government is still up in the air but it could include the emboldened True Finns and the center-left Social Democrats, who came in second with 19.1 percent of the vote and are also critical of bailing out Portugal.
"Negotiations will be difficult but we all hope for a stable government," said Tohtua, who said he voted for Katainen's conservatives, which back the EU stability package.
Soini, basking in the light of his election victory, said Monday that he would try to renegotiate the terms for aiding Portugal and for the look of the European Stability Mechanism.
"The Finnish cow should be milked in Finland and the milk shouldn't be sent abroad as a gift," Soini told Finnish broadcaster YLE.
Finland's previous government backed the stability package but postponed its ratification until after Sunday's election. As the EU decision requires unanimity, the True Finns could try to win support for blocking the package when Finland's Parliament votes on it.
Markets reacted nervously Monday on the news from Finland, with yields on Portuguese, Spanish and Italian bonds rising in all maturities.
Politicians abroad are also concerned.
Elmar Brok, a German lawmaker with Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union, warned of "serious consequences for the financial markets" if Finland decides to block a bailout for Portugal.
"The future premier Katainen needs to bring the True Finns on a sensible course" or even bar them from entering a government if they don't agree to back the EU stability fund, Brok Monday told German public radio Deutschlandfunk.
Coalition talks are expected to last a month. Until then, anxiety could burden debt markets in Europe.
