Finnish Center Party

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Suomen Keskusta
Centers i Finland
Finnish Center Party
KESK logo
Party leader Katri Kulmuni
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
Keskusta stand in Jyväskylä .

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

Parliamentary election 2011: Center party's share of votes by municipalities.
Parliamentary election 2011: Municipalities in which the center received the most votes are marked in green.

Results of parliamentary elections

year Mandates be right %
1907 09 051,242 05.75%
1908 10 051,756 06.39%
1909 13 056,943 06.73%
1910 17th 060.157 07.60%
1911 16 062,885 07.84%
1913 18th 056,977 07.87%
1916 19th 071,608 09.00%
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 08.09%
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%0
2019 2 247,416 13.52%

Presidential election

choice candidate Indirect choice
electors be right percent placement
1925 Lauri Kristian Relander 069 129,932 19.90 1.
1931 Kyösti Kallio 069 167,574 20.00 3.
1937 Kyösti Kallio 056 184,668 16.60 1.
1950 Urho Kekkonen 062 309.060 19.60 3.
1956 Urho Kekkonen 088 510.783 26.90 1.
1962 Urho Kekkonen 111 698.199 31.70 1.
1968 Urho Kekkonen 065 421.197 20.66 1.
1978 Urho Kekkonen 064 475,372 19.40 1.
1982 Johannes Virolainen 053 534.515 16.80 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 0.623.415 19.50 3.
2000 Esko ahoy 1,051,159
1,540,803 		34.4 48.40
0 		2.
2.
2006 Matti Vanhanen 0.561,990 18.60 3.
2012 Paavo Väyrynen 0.536,555 17.53 3.
2018 Matti Vanhanen 0.122,320 4.1 5.

List of party leaders

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kiviniemi is not running as party leader (Swedish) Hufvudstadsbladet online, April 1, 2012, accessed July 10, 2012
  2. ↑ Marianne Lydén: Kiviniemi worried about quarreling center (Swedish) Hufvudstadsbladet online, April 2, 2012, accessed on July 10, 2012
  3. ↑ kauppalehti.fi: Perussuomalaisilla hurja tahti: ”Jäseniä tulee ovista ja ikkunoista” March 13, 2011, accessed on July 24, 2011