Finnish Center Party
Suomen Keskusta Centers i Finland Finnish Center Party |
|
---|---|
Party leader | Katri Kulmuni |
Secretary General | Riikka Pirkkalainen |
vice-chairman |
Hannakaisa Heikkinen Petri Honkonen Juha Rehula |
founding | 1906 |
Headquarters | Apollonkatu 11 A FIN - 00100 Helsinki |
Alignment |
Liberalism centrism agrarianism |
Colours) | green |
Parliament seats |
31/200 |
Number of members | 163,000 (2011) |
International connections | Liberal International (LI) |
MEPs |
2/14 |
European party | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) |
EP Group | Renew Europe (RE) |
Website | www.keskusta.fi |
The Finnish Center Party ( Finnish Suomen Keskusta , abbreviated Kesk .; Swedish Centern i Finland ), until 1965 Landbund (Finnish Maalaisliitto ; Swedish Agrarförbundet ) is a peasant - liberal party of the political center in Finland . She is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the European association of liberal parties.
history
The Landbund was founded in 1906 to provide political representation for the rural population. In the first elections to the Finnish state parliament in March 1907, the party received 5.75% of the vote. The dominant parties in Finland, which at that time still belonged to the Russian Empire, were, besides the Social Democratic Party of Finland, the Finnish Party and the Young Finnish Party , which found their voters in Finnish circles and, among other things, aimed at strengthening the Finnish language. The Swedish People's Party also had a high percentage of the vote compared to today, with over 12% of the vote. By the revolutionary year of 1917, the Landbund was able to increase its share of the vote in the parliamentary elections, which take place almost annually, to over 12%. When, in November 1917, Pehr Evind Svinhufvud of the Young Finnish Party first formed a Finnish government cabinet, the Landbund was a member of the government. The party supported the formation of a republic and thus opposed a possible monarchy.
In the first elections after independence , the Landbund was able to increase its share of the vote and became the second strongest force behind the Social Democratic Party. In 1922, Kyösti Kallio became the first Landbund member of the Finnish Prime Minister. Lauri Kristian Relander was elected president in 1925, and by the time Kyösti Kallio became president in 1937, six cabinets had already ruled under the leadership of Landbund politicians (four under Kallio, two under Juho Sunila ).
After the war, the Landbund became an integral part of numerous coalitions. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the party appointed Urho Kekkonen , Vieno Sukselainen , Martti Miettunen , Ahti Karjalainen and Johannes Virolainen as prime minister several times. Urho Kekkonen also became the third and so far last President of the Landbund in 1956.
The party originally had an agrarian background, but since the 1960s it has also opened up to urban liberal voters, which was also externally achieved when the party was renamed the Center Party in 1965. To date, however, there are internal differences between the rural and urban wings of the party. In 1959, a group critical of Kekkonen split off, which later formed the populist protest party Rural Party of Finland and won over 10% of the vote in the 1970 parliamentary election . The Center Party fell below the 20% mark in these elections for the first time since 1922, and in the following elections its election results had leveled off at around 17.5%. Since 1988 the party has been officially called Suomen Keskusta (German center of Finland).
In 1990 Esko Aho became party leader. A year later, the center achieved its strongest result since 1930 with 24.8% and Aho was elected Prime Minister. Finland's accession to the European Union in 1995 is often seen as Aho's merit. Nevertheless, the center was rather skeptical of the EU, especially at the turn of the millennium.
In the parliamentary elections in 2007 , the party received 23% of the vote and became the largest group in the Finnish parliament with 51 seats . She led a ruling coalition with the National Collection Party , the Green Bund and the Swedish People's Party . The center provided Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi and seven other ministers. In the 2011 election , the center suffered its worst result since 1917. With 15.8%, the party fell behind the rallying party, the Social Democrats and the right-wing populist grassroots .
In the spring of 2012, internal disputes in the center had increased, so that the chairwoman Mari Kiviniemi announced with reference to moderate poll numbers for the party that she would not be available again for the party chairmanship. There is mainly disagreement on the EU and the euro . At the same time, parts of the party are pressing for a return to their old role as representing the interests of the agriculturally structured rural areas. In the local election in October 2012 , the center received 18.7%.
With 163,000 members (as of 2011) it is by far the party with the largest number of members in Finland; However, it lost around eight percent of its members in the period from 2008 to 2011 (previously 176,000). It gets its best election results in the landscapes of southern , central and northern Ostrobothnia , while it still plays a rather subordinate role in cities.
Election results
Results of parliamentary elections
year | Mandates | be right | % |
---|---|---|---|
1907 | 9 | 51,242 | 5.75% |
1908 | 10 | 51,756 | 6.39% |
1909 | 13 | 56,943 | 6.73% |
1910 | 17th | 60.157 | 7.60% |
1911 | 16 | 62,885 | 7.84% |
1913 | 18th | 56,977 | 7.87% |
1916 | 19th | 71,608 | 9.00% |
1917 | 26th | 122,900 | 12.38% |
1919 | 42 | 189,297 | 19.70% |
1922 | 45 | 175.401 | 20.27% |
1924 | 44 | 177,982 | 20.25% |
1927 | 52 | 205.313 | 22.56% |
1929 | 60 | 248,762 | 26.15% |
1930 | 59 | 308.280 | 27.28% |
1933 | 53 | 249,758 | 22.54% |
1936 | 53 | 262.917 | 22.41% |
1939 | 56 | 296,529 | 22.86% |
1945 | 49 | 362,662 | 21.35% |
1948 | 56 | 455.635 | 24.24% |
1951 | 51 | 421.613 | 23.26% |
1954 | 53 | 483,958 | 24.10% |
1958 | 48 | 448.364 | 23.06% |
1962 | 53 | 528,409 | 22.95% |
1966 | 49 | 503.047 | 21.23% |
1970 | 36 | 434.150 | 17.12% |
1972 | 35 | 423.039 | 16.41% |
1975 | 39 | 484.772 | 17.63% |
1979 | 36 | 500,478 | 17.29% |
1983 | 38 | 525.207 | 17.63% |
1987 | 40 | 507.460 | 17.62% |
1991 | 55 | 676.717 | 24.83% |
1995 | 44 | 552.003 | 19.85% |
1999 | 48 | 600,592 | 22.40% |
2003 | 55 | 689.391 | 24.69% |
2007 | 51 | 640,428 | 23.11% |
2011 | 35 | 463.160 | 15.76% |
2015 | 49 | 626.218 | 21.10% |
2019 | 31 | 423.920 | 13.76% |
Results in local elections
year | Mandates | be right | % |
---|---|---|---|
1950 | 121,804 | 8.09% | |
1953 | 282,331 | 16.04% | |
1956 | 366.380 | 21.91% | |
1960 | 401,346 | 20.44% | |
1964 | 413,561 | 19.28% | |
1968 | 3533 | 428.841 | 18.93% |
1972 | 3297 | 449.908 | 17.99% |
1976 | 3936 | 494.423 | 18.43% |
1980 | 3889 | 513,362 | 18.72% |
1984 | 4052 | 545.034 | 20.21% |
1988 | 4227 | 554.924 | 21.10% |
1992 | 3998 | 511,954 | 19.22% |
1996 | 4459 | 518.305 | 21.81% |
2000 | 4625 | 528.319 | 23.75% |
2004 | 4425 | 543,885 | 22.77% |
2008 | 3518 | 512.220 | 20.09% |
2012 | 3077 | 465.167 | 18.66% |
Results of elections to the European Parliament
year | Mandates | be right | % |
---|---|---|---|
1996 | 4th | 548.041 | 24.36% |
1999 | 4th | 264,640 | 21.30% |
2004 | 4th | 387.217 | 23.37% |
2009 | 3 | 316,798 | 19.03% |
2014 | 3 | 339,398 | 19.7% |
2019 | 2 | 247,416 | 13.52% |
Presidential election
choice | candidate | Indirect choice | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
electors | be right | percent | placement | ||
1925 | Lauri Kristian Relander | 69 | 129,932 | 19.9 | 1. |
1931 | Kyösti Kallio | 69 | 167,574 | 20.0 | 3. |
1937 | Kyösti Kallio | 56 | 184,668 | 16.6 | 1. |
1950 | Urho Kekkonen | 62 | 309.060 | 19.60 | 3. |
1956 | Urho Kekkonen | 88 | 510.783 | 26.9 | 1. |
1962 | Urho Kekkonen | 111 | 698.199 | 31.7 | 1. |
1968 | Urho Kekkonen | 65 | 421.197 | 20.66 | 1. |
1978 | Urho Kekkonen | 64 | 475,372 | 19.4 | 1. |
1982 | Johannes Virolainen | 53 | 534.515 | 16.8 | 3. |
choice | candidate | Indirect choice | Direct choice | placement | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
electors | be right | percent | be right | percent | |||
1988 | Paavo Väyrynen | 68 | 647.769 | 21.70 | 636.375 | 20.57 | 2. |
choice | candidate | Direct choice | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
be right | percent | placement | |||
1994 | Paavo Väyrynen | 623.415 | 19.5 | 3. | |
2000 | Esko ahoy | 1,051,159 1,540,803 |
34.4 48.4 |
2. 2. |
|
2006 | Matti Vanhanen | 561,990 | 18.6 | 3. | |
2012 | Paavo Väyrynen | 536,555 | 17.53 | 3. | |
2018 | Matti Vanhanen | 122,320 | 4.1 | 5. |
List of party leaders
- 1906–1909: Otto Karhi
- 1909–1917: Kyösti Kallio
- 1917–1918: Filip Saalasti
- 1918-1919: Santeri Alkio
- 1919–1940: Petter Heikkinen
- 1940-1946: Viljami Kalliokoski
- 1946–1964: Vieno Sukselainen
- 1964–1980: Johannes Virolainen
- 1980-1990: Paavo Väyrynen
- 1990-2002: Esko Aho
- 2002–2003: Anneli Jäätteenmäki
- 2003-2010: Matti Vanhanen
- 2010–2012: Mari Kiviniemi
- 2012–2019: Juha Sipilä
- since 2019: Katri Kulmuni
Web links
- Official website (Finnish and Swedish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kiviniemi is not running as party leader (Swedish) Hufvudstadsbladet online, April 1, 2012, accessed July 10, 2012
- ↑ Marianne Lydén: Kiviniemi worried about quarreling center (Swedish) Hufvudstadsbladet online, April 2, 2012, accessed on July 10, 2012
- ↑ kauppalehti.fi: Perussuomalaisilla hurja tahti: ”Jäseniä tulee ovista ja ikkunoista” March 13, 2011, accessed on July 24, 2011