The World - News from May 1, 1987

Harri Holkeri, Finland’s first conservative prime minister since World War II, took office with a pledge to maintain traditionally close ties with the Soviet Union and to expand trade with the West. Holkeri, 50, the former leader of the National Coalition Party who most recently served as director of the Bank of Finland, was sworn in by President Mauno Koivisto. Holkeri’s four-party coalition, which holds 131 of the 200 seats in Parliament, replaced the center-left government of Kalevi Sorsa, a Social Democrat who serves as deputy prime minister and foreign minister in the new government.