Finnish Premier Throws Curve Ball to Limit Election Slump

  • Sipila resigns over health reform ahead of April 14 vote
  • PM seen in ‘damage control mode’ amid dismal polling
Juha SipilaPhotographer: Roni Rekomaa/Bloomberg
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Finland’s millionaire prime minister has a history of defying the odds, but his latest gamble may not be enough to rescue his party from defeat in next month’s general election.

A businessman who made his fortune selling mobile-phone parts in the 1990s, Juha Sipila capped his meteoric rise into politics by winning the 2015 election at the helm of the Center Party, a conservative movement that has its traditional base in Finland’s rural areas.