---
title: "The Economic Right Won the Election | Ivan Puopolo | Negotiator 85"
titleOriginal: "Talousoikeisto voitti vaalit | Ivan Puopolo | Neuvottelija 85"
episodeNumber: "85"
guest: "Ivan Puopolo"
datePublished: 2021-06-16
duration: "14:29"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["finnish_economy_policy","free_speech_society"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one. The marks are genuine: eleven of them across a fifteen-minute recording, with gaps from 36 to 130 seconds, tracking the conversation rather than a grid. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. This is a short reaction piece recorded days after the 13 June 2021 municipal elections; both participants argue from the same side and no one from the parties or positions criticised is present. The values map referred to is a newspaper's instrument and its methodology is not examined here."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/97-talousoikeisto-voitti-vaalit-ivan-puopolo-neuvottelija-85"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep85-talousoikeisto-voitti-vaalit-ivan-puopolo/
---
# The Economic Right Won the Election | Ivan Puopolo | Negotiator 85

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw&t=0s) Ivan Puopolo as guest: a quick reflection on the municipal elections
- [01:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw&t=62s) The right's victory, and the size of the public sector
- [02:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw&t=125s) The Coalition took the big cities, and the balance of power in Helsinki
- [03:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw&t=199s) Municipal elections do not measure the government-opposition line-up
- [04:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw&t=291s) Vartiainen and Valtonen as the economic right's leading figures
- [06:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw&t=368s) Iltalehti's values map: Finland's right is in the middle
- [08:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw&t=482s) An EU federation, and untried tax populism
- [08:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw&t=535s) Support for the welfare state, and a minimal state's cut list
- [10:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw&t=632s) The Laffer curve, and lowering taxes
- [12:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw&t=761s) Finland's 42 per cent tax rate against the OECD's 34
- [13:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw&t=797s) Finland is a left-wing country: closing words

## Summary

A quick reflection on Finland's June 2021 municipal elections, in which Ivan Puopolo and the host ask whether Finland has an economic right at all. The National Coalition Party took Helsinki, Turku and Tampere, but in Puopolo's view no party campaigns on shrinking the public sector — even the Coalition's right flank talks only about balancing it, and Petteri Orpo's growing the common cake means in practice a larger tax take. On Iltalehti's values map Finland's most right-wing party sits on the centre line, with both main American parties clearly to its right. The host offers a tax-rebel counterpoint: Finland's richest percentile is poor by international standards, the total tax rate is 42 to 43 per cent against the OECD's 34, and by Laffer-curve logic a tax cut could raise revenue. The episode ends on the observation that nobody in Finland proposes lowering the tax rate.

## Winning cities, losing the argument

The Coalition took Helsinki, Turku and Tampere, and Puopolo's reading is that this settles nothing about economic policy, because no party — including that one — ran on making the public sector smaller. Balancing a larger state is a different proposition, and it is the only one on offer.

## Where the Finnish right actually sits

Placed on an internationally calibrated values map, Finland's most right-wing party lands on the centre line, with both American parties to its right. That is a statement about the Finnish spectrum's width rather than about any party's position within it.

## Nobody proposes the cut

The closing observation is the sharpest: whatever the rhetoric, no Finnish party proposes lowering the total tax rate. If that is right, then the left-right framing of the country's tax debate describes a disagreement that is not taking place.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Talousoikeisto voitti vaalit | Ivan Puopolo | Neuvottelija 85](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2g_fDkrURw).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/97-talousoikeisto-voitti-vaalit-ivan-puopolo-neuvottelija-85).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep85-talousoikeisto-voitti-vaalit-ivan-puopolo/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/yhteiskunta/ep85-talousoikeisto-voitti-vaalit-ivan-puopolo/).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — The Economic Right Won the Election | Ivan Puopolo | Negotiator 85, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep85-talousoikeisto-voitti-vaalit-ivan-puopolo/, 2021-06-16. For quotes include episode 85 and timestamp.