Finland’s results in the European election bucked a continent-wide trend of rising support for parties on the outer fringe of right-wing politics, with the Left Alliance and the National Coalition winning big at the expense of the nationalist Finns Party.
Leftist leader Li Andersson received more votes than any other candidate has ever received in a European election.
The overton window.
If the political opinions are reduced to a spectum running from left to right, then in a two party system the major parties will sit immediately to either side of the mid-way point, because they want to seduce as many swing voters as possible from the other side.
As in, the conservative party may have conservative dreams but their policies need to be far enough to the left to actually win an election, so they will push up against the progressive party.
If suddenly more voters vote progressive (the conservative party loses badly), the conservative party needs to adjust their policy settings further to the left.
As the conservative party’s policies move to the left, the progressive party will start losing voters to them unless they also move further to the left.