Finland’s prime minister resigns after losing support from ally

Finland’s prime minister resigned Tuesday after his handling of a dispute regarding the country’s postal service caused a key coalition partner to withdraw its support from his five-party government.

Antti Rinne became Finland’s prime minister in June, but has faced overwhelming outcry over how he dealt with a two-week strike of Posti, the country’s state-run postal service that ended Nov. 27, The Associated Press reports.

Particularly, Rinne has been accused of misleading the public with contradictory information about labor negotiations which ultimately led to lower pay for 700 of Posti’s package handlers.

Sirpa Paatero, who was in charge of state-run companies, resigned Friday, the AP says.

According to the news outlet, the Center Party, one of the five parties that made up Rinne’s Cabinet, withdrew its support of Rinne on Monday, urging him to resign or face a vote of no confidence. 

Rinne will stay on as prime minister until his Social Democratic Party, which still holds a comfortable majority in Finland’s parliament, chooses his successor next week.

The new prime minister and Cabinet will take power on Dec. 13.