Li Andersson is not like most other left-wing politicians. She is young, personable, charismatic, and very down to earth. She’s also pretty good at winning elections.

I met Andersson at Käänne Festival — a conference she organised to bring the left together in the wake of a strong performance in the recent European Parliament elections. While the far-right made across much of the bloc, Finland bucked the trend. The left won 17 percent of the vote, and Andersson was elected an MEP with more votes than any candidate has ever received in a European Parliament election in Finland.

‘This is the first time we’ve had this festival,’ she told me as we sat down in the conference green room, above a bustling restaurant in the centre of Helsinki. ‘It’s really exciting for me.’

Andersson is the former leader of the Left Alliance, Finland’s main left party. The left put in a good performance in the 2019 elections, winning 16 seats and entering a coalition with the social democrats. The coalition was led by one of the coolest politicians in Europe, the SDP’s Sanna Marin, who you may have seen in the news after she was forced to apologise for going clubbing during COVID.

As we sit down, Andersson waves goodbye to Marin with a warm smile. The two have just finished a panel discussion on the reduction of working hours (alongside Will Stronge of Autonomy). I note the goodwill that clearly exists between Andersson and Marin with interest — it’s unusual for social democrats and leftists to get along so well.

The two do have a fair amount in common. Both are young, charismatic, intelligent women seen as modernisers within their respective parties. And they have some common views when it comes to policy. Andersson served in the Marin-led coalition as Education Minister, and at the conference, both seemed very keen on the idea of the four-day week.

The Cost of Austerity

Andersson believes that the last left government did not go far enough to transform the Finnish economy to the benefit of working people, which is why they lost power in the wake of the cost of living crisis.

‘You might have read the quote “Unemployment hurts governments, inflation kills them.” During the last government, we didn’t really discuss tools for address inflation. We were very much stuck on fiscal policy and not asking questions like “Do we use price caps?”’

Now the right is in power again, in coalition with the far-right Finns Party, imposing a harsh austerity agenda.

‘Austerity has been the main way of doing economic policy ever since the financial crisis. The only exception ever since 2011 was the government coalition that we had from 2019 to 2023.

‘The argument of the right is that we have to live within our means, we can’t take on more debt. But, of course, they have not succeeded in lowering the debt ratio because austerity has led to low growth and high unemployment.’

Finland is often lumped in with the other Nordic countries as an economy with solid labour rights and a strong social safety net. But thanks to the policies of successive right-wing governments, Andersson argues this characterisation is no longer justified.

‘I think it’s fair to say that we’re not really a Nordic model country anymore.’

In a story that has been repeated countless times across Europe, the right’s failed austerity agenda has abetted the rise of the far right.

‘The fuel for the far right comes from disillusionment. From the lack of vision, the lack of hope. When you have no credible alternatives for a better future, people turn their anger and frustration towards other groups.’

The difference in Finland is that the far right is actually in power.

‘This is a place where we have seen exactly what the cooperation between the right and the far right really means. They’ve imposed historic cuts to social security and healthcare and implemented a lot of highly criticised right-wing labour market reforms.

‘If you look at the rest of Europe, these parties still have the luxury of just portraying themselves as the voice of the people. But here we can really see what these parties do when they are in power. People have felt the impact of their policies. And it’s just Thatcherism with racism.’

Andersson compares the Finnish experience with Sweden’s, where the far-right party has become, as she puts it, ‘the formal support party of government.’ This institutionalisation is beginning to erode support for the party, whose vote share declined in the recent European elections.

Rebuilding Support

Andersson notes that in both Finland and Sweden, the parties best positioned to take advantage of the institutionalisation of far-right parties are the new ‘red green’ parties of the left.

‘We have done the work of creating a modern left alternative for as many voters as possible. We have combined environmental policy with ambitious policies for redistribution, but we have also been very clear when it comes to international law and human rights.’

The left alliance has been very focused on supporting both Gaza and Ukraine. Andersson says that opposition to Russian aggression, which is a critical issue in Finnish politics, has placed her at odds with some parties of the ‘old left’ across Europe. But she is adamant that the European left has to put aside its differences and try to work together.

‘A really uniting theme for all of us is challenging the broken economic model. The world is in such a terrible state that we need to build broad coalitions on the themes that unite us.

‘Sometimes the left tends to think that cooperation means we have to sit down and write a resolution where everyone agrees on every word, but that means you lose a lot of time and energy on stuff people don’t care about.’

Andersson is rigidly focused on the ‘stuff people care about.’ She is extremely well-versed on a multitude of policy issues. Over the course of our conversation, she speaks at length on topics ranging from Spain’s introduction of a 37.5 hour working week, to Isabella Weber’s proposal of using price controls to target inflation.

When I ask her about her own policy priorities, she says the focus is on policies that will deliver a ‘better working life.’ She is particularly focused on labour market reforms, such as the introduction of a real minimum wage and limitations on working hours. She also emphasises the importance of strengthening workers’ rights, which have been eroded by successive governments.

‘Here [the government] has restricted the right to strike. We want to work on reinstating the right to strike as it’s so fundamental. We’re also working on issues that have to do with representation in companies and company democracy.’

I ask her what the party’s relationship is like with the unions that would presumably benefit from these policy initiatives.

‘At the moment, it’s very good. There have been times when it has been more distant because the Left Party was going through this transition of incorporating environmental policies into our agenda. That created tensions with the trade unions at the time.

Now, it’s a very different situation because I think that they have understood the implications of the environmental disaster we’re living in. And because of everything that has happened [with the far-right government], we now have a lot in common in terms of policy.’

The Alternative

This tension between modern left parties and the labour movement over climate is an issue all over the world (read this book to learn how organisers are overcoming this divide). But Andersson is adamant that what she calls ‘red green’ politics is the only way forward — for both pragmatic and ideological reasons.

‘We just got news now that the Finnish forest is no longer a carbon sink because there has been so much logging. The forests are now a source of emissions. And that’s also a redistributive issue because it’s a source of profit for the logging industry, and the consequences will be paid for by taxpayers.’

When I ask her about the greatest challenge for the left in Finland, she talks about the apparent closure of the ‘progressive’ space across Europe. Sure, Finnish left parties did well in the recent European elections, but that took place against a background of right resurgence.

‘I think Finland should be used as an example outside our own borders. I hope we won’t see many other countries where the far right actually gets into power, so we should use the Finnish example to help people to understand that their policies have nothing to do with supporting workers or increasing equality.

‘And the left needs to continue to work on our proposals for an alternative economic model. We need to be brave on that.’