Finns Party Switch EU Parl't Allegiance; Marin Steps Down As SDP Head

The Finns Party (PS) has changed its allegiance at the EU level, leaving the right-wing nationalist Identity and Democracy (ID) group in favour of the conservative European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), citing “the radical change in Finland’s security policy environment and Russia’s brutal war of aggression...the Finns must be part of a group in the European Parliament whose member parties stand united in uncompromising defense of Western civilization and the European security policy architecture”

• The Finns Party scored its best-ever result in the 2 April general election, coming in second place with 20.1% of the vote. The public shift away from the ID group, which contains lawmakers from overtly pro-Russian parties, to the ECR containing the parties of Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki could be seen as an attempt to display a more moderate side to the PS as it seeks a position in the next gov't.
• Earlier today Prime Minister Sanna Marin, whose centre-left coalition was defeated in the election, announced that she would be stepping down as head of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and returning to the backbenches. There remains the slim possibility that if the PS cannot form a coalition with the poll-topping centre-right National Coalition Party that a 'grand coalition' with the SDP would be sought.