At a Finns party congress, 56 percent of its members voted in favour of European Parliament member Jussi Halla-aho while 37 percent backed the more moderate Sampo Terho.
Finland's eurosceptic Finns party, which is part of the ruling coalition, elected an anti-immigration hardliner as chairman on Saturday in a move likely to toughen the party's nationalist line and spell trouble for the government.
At a Finns party congress, 56 percent of its members voted in favour of European Parliament member Jussi Halla-aho while 37 percent backed the more moderate Sampo Terho.
Halla-aho, who wants Finland to leave the European Union, has said he would push his centre-right coalition partners to tighten immigration policies and would not stick to the three-party government at any cost.
"We must be more aggressive in raising the topics that distinguish us from other parties," Halla-aho told reporters after the vote, referring to policies on immigration and the EU.
While snap elections are seen as unlikely, the break-up of the coalition could derail healthcare and local government reforms central to its plan to balance public finances.
Prime Minister Juha Sipila from the Centre Party, who has yet to comment on the government's future, is due to meet Halla-aho on Monday.
The Finns party has rural roots but Halla-aho is expected to lead it towards a more hardline right-wing populism. Formerly known as True Finns, the party is known for complicating EU bailout talks during the euro zone crisis.
After becoming the second-biggest party in parliament, it softened its nationalist and anti-EU stance but support for Finns plunged from 17.7 percent in a 2015 election to about 9 percent in a poll this month.
Halla-aho was fined by Finland's Supreme Court in 2012 for comments on a blog that linked Islam to paedophilia and Somalis to theft.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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