Finnish PM offers resignation due to failed reform

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Europe

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila officially Friday offered his government's resignation to the country's president after it failed to put through a social and health care reform package, saying he was "hugely disappointed", the president's office announced.

"Prime Minister Juha Sipila has submitted the resignation of the government to President of the Republic Sauli Niinisto... today," Niinisto's office said in an announcement made just five weeks ahead of legislative elections scheduled for April 14.

"The president has accepted the government's resignation and asked it to continue on a caretaker basis until a new government has been appointed."

President of Finland Sauli Niinisto (L) and Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila, who announced his government's resignation, shake hands at the president's official residence, Mantyniemi, in Helsinki, Finland March 8, 2019. /VCG Photo

The resignation came after the government's health and social care reform collapsed in parliament.

According to the government, the reform could have curbed the annual growth of Finland's public social and healthcare expenses to 0.9 percent from the current estimate of 2.4 percent between 2019 and 2029.

Sipila, a former businessman who earned millions as an IT entrepreneur before becoming prime minister in 2015, has made health and social reform one of his top priorities in office, seeing a shake-up as necessary to cut the ballooning costs of treating a rapidly aging population.

He has since 2015 headed a coalition made up of his Center Party, the conservative National Coalition, and Blue Reform, a moderate faction spun off from the far-right.

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters