Social democrats, left alliance walk away from coalition cabinet negotiations

Jyrki Katainen's negotiations to form a coalition cabinet took a step backward with the Social Democratic party and the Left alliance walking out of negotiations over disputes with economic policy. This leaves Katainen with the job of persuading the former prime minister Kiviniemi's Centre party to take part in the cabinet, and even that gives the new coalition a slim 105 out of 200 seats majority.

Centre party is remembered for being the undisputed greatest loser of the Finnish 2011 parliamentary election, losing a whopping 16 seats and going from the most popular party to the fourth most popular one. They have stated from election night onwards that they would not take part in any coalition cabinet, and that they would consider taking part in one an insult to Finnish parliamentary democracy. Looks like Jukka Tarkka may have been right after all, when he said he considered a new election a real possibility.