The majority of 200 members of the new Parliament pledged to consider scaling up Finland’s development cooperation budget.
Some 129 MPs favor increasing international development funding, of whom 57 note that such an increase will hinge on the state of Finland’s domestic finances, according to figures from the Vaalikone website, an Internet-based candidate selection engine set up by Helsingin Sanomat.
The remaining 72 MPs said Finland should work to achieve the international target of allocating 0.7 percent of the gross domestic product by 2015. Finland spent 0.55 percent of its GDP in development projects last year, Helsingin Sanomat reports.
Four True Finns MPs Jussi Halla-aho, Juha Eerola, Olli Immonen, and Johanna Jurva called for abolishing their country’s foreign aid program.
True Finns has secured nearly a fifth of the votes in Finland’s general election, according to the electoral commission.
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