 Koivisto's government suffered heavy losses, totalling over 20 MPs, but it still had a majority.President Urho Kekkonen allowed the National Coalition Party's leader Juha Rihtniemi to try to form a new government.He was unable to form a majority government, and Kekkonen refused to allow him to form a minority centre-right government, claiming that such a government would fail in foreign policy (in other words, it would not gain the Soviet Union's trust).