HELSINKI, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Outgoing Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila on Tuesday announced his resignation as chairman of the Center Party following the Party's a major defeat in the parliamentary election.
He said on social media that the election result gave him no other choice. The Center Party got the worst result in over 100 years in the election on Sunday.
Sipila was not willing to meet reporters on Tuesday. The party's secretary Riikka Pirkkalainen said an extraordinary party convention will be arranged in September when a new chairman will be formally elected.
The resignation of Sipila was seen as making the talks about a future government easier. There was major reluctance in the ranks of the winning Social Democrats against seeing Sipila in a new cabinet.
The Center Party on Tuesday listed its conditions for joining a cabinet under Social Democratic leader Antti Rinne. Marko Junkkari, an analyst for the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, noted that many of the "conditions" set by the Center Party would be easy for the Social Democrats to accept.
Conservative leader Petteri Orpo on Tuesday praised Sipila for having remained "committed to the program of the coalition government" and willing to "carry responsibility". Analysts have partially attributed the election defeat to Sipila's reforms which promoted the conservative party's agenda rather than the traditional centrist agenda.
Li Andersson, chairman of the Left Alliance, said Sipila's resignation signaled that the Center remains part of the government formation process.
WEALTHY BUSINESSMAN
Sipila was chosen as party chairman in 2012. Before being elected into parliament in 2011, he had made a large fortune as a businessman in the IT sector.
His campaign with the promise to "repair Finland" led to victory in 2015. Sipila formed a coalition government with the conservatives and the populist Finns Party.
Even though the Center Party traditionally emphasized social responsibility and had leaned more towards the political left, Sipila began implementing economic policies that reflected largely the interests of the business sector.
He tried to change labor laws to make the labor market more flexible, but had to backtrack several plans due to massive opposition from the trade unions and the political left.
For the plans to reform the public health system, Sipila made a deal with the conservatives where the introduction of a provincial administrative tier was coupled with the opening up of tax-financed public health sector to private business.
As the plan finally failed due to constitutional and schedule issues, Sipila handed in the resignation of his cabinet in March, less than two months before the parliamentary election.