Parliamentary election in Finland 1948

← 1945General election 19481951 →

Result (in%)

 %

30th

20th

10

0

26.3

24.2

20.0

17.0

7.3

3.9

1.3

SDP

ML

SKDL

COOK

RKP

ED

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 1945

 % p

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

+1.2

+2.8

-3.5

+2.0

-0.6

-1.3

-0.6

SDP

ML

SKDL

COOK

RKP

ED

Otherwise.

Distribution of seats

      

A total of 200 seats

• SKDL : 38
• SDP : 54
• ED : 5
• RKP : 14
• ML : 56
• KOK : 33

The parliamentary elections in Finland in 1948 took place on July 1 and 2, 1948. It was the election for the 19th Finnish parliament .

The election brought considerable losses for the strongest force to date, the People's Democrats, who, with Mauno Pekkala, have so far been the prime minister. The Social Democrats and the Landbund, on the other hand, won votes.

Election poster of the National Collection Party ("Be free - vote for Kokoomus")

Starting position

Before the election there had been a major campaign against the People's Democratic Union that had emerged from the Communist Party. Mauno Pekkala, himself a social democratic people's democrat, led a government made up of social and people's democrats as well as the Landbund and the Swedish People's Party since March 1946. In terms of foreign policy, Finland's position between the two great powers in the east and west was an issue. At the beginning of 1948 the Soviet Union had proposed a friendship and assistance pact to Finland, which, however, found no support in the Finnish parliament. In March 1948, detailed talks between the two states had finally begun, which ended with the Soviet Union officially staying out of Finnish domestic politics. In order to finally support the People's Democrats in the elections, the Soviet leadership announced in May 1948 that it would cut Finland's reparations payments to the Soviet Union by half.

Participating parties

Eight different parties ran for election.

The following parties were already represented in parliament:

Political party		Alignment	Top candidate
	Social Democratic Party of Finland Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (SDP) Finlands Socialdemokratiska Parti	social democratic	Emil Skog
	Democratic Union of the Finnish People Suomen Kansan Demokraattinen Liitto (SKDL) Demokratiska Förbundet för Finlands Folk (DFFF)	socialist	Kusti Kulo
	Landbund Maalaisliitto (ML) Agrarförbundet	social liberal	Vieno Sukselainen
	National Collection Party Kansallinen Kokoomus (KOK) Samlingspartiet	conservative	Arvo salt mines
	Swedish People's Party Ruotsalainen Kansanpuolue (RKP) Svenska Folkpartiet (SFP)	liberal	Ralf Törngren
	National Progressive Party Kansallinen Edistyspuolue (ED) Framstegspartiet	liberal	Akseli Nikula

Election result

The turnout was 78.2 percent, 3.3 percentage points above the turnout in the last parliamentary election in 1945.

The People's Democrats lost eleven seats. Due to the Finnish electoral system, the strongest force in parliament was the Landbund, which received fewer votes than the Social Democratic Party, which also won, but gained seven seats and was two seats ahead of the Social Democrats in parliament. The liberal Progressive Party, which had repeatedly appointed the Prime Minister in the prewar period (list here ), only received 3.9% of the vote and was only able to take five seats in parliament.

Result of the parliamentary election in Finland in 1948

Political party		be right			Seats
		number	%	+/-	number	+/-
	Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP)	494.719	26.32	+1.24	54	+4
	Land Federation (ML)	455.635	24.24	+2.89	56	+7
	Democratic Union of the Finnish People (SKDL)	375,538	19.98	−3.49	38	−11
	National Collection Party (KOK)	320.366	17.04	+2.00	33	+5 '
	Swedish People's Party (RKP)	137.981	7.34	−0.56	13	−1
	National Progressive Party (ED)	73,444	3.91	−1.26	5	−4
	Åländsk Samling *	6,567	0.35	+0.35	1	+1
	Small farmers party	5,378	0.29	−0.89	-	-
	Radical People's Party (RadKP)	5,162	0.27	+0.17	-	-
	Others	5,178	0.28	+0.05	-	-
total		1,879,968	100.00		200
Valid votes		1,879,968	99.27
Invalid votes		13,869	0.73
voter turnout		1,893,837	78.25
Eligible voters		2,420,287	100.00
Source:
Notes: * Åland mandate

After the election

The Social Democrat Karl-August Fagerholm was elected Prime Minister after the election. With the exception of the non-party Foreign Minister Carl Enckell, only members of the social democratic SDP belonged to his cabinet . This minority government lasted until the beginning of 1950, before Urho Kekkonen was elected head of a new minority government by the Landbund with the help of the Progress Party and the Swedish People's Party. After ten months, however, Kekkonen took the Social Democrats into government.

Meanwhile, the anti-communist forces in Finland had caused the protection police to maintain Finnish independence Valpo and the state television station Yleisradio to be put in a corner because of alleged communist infiltration. Yleisradio was even banned. In addition, in 1949 there was an amnesty for politicians considered guilty of war (including Väinö Tanner from the SDP), who had previously been convicted under Soviet pressure.

Overview of the cabinets:

32. Fagerholm I Cabinet - Karl-August Fagerholm (Social Democrats) - Government: Social Democrats ( July 29, 1948 to March 17, 1950 )
33. Cabinet Kekkonen I - Urho Kekkonen (Landbund) - Government: Landbund, Swedish People's Party, Progress Party ( March 17, 1950 to January 17, 1951 )
34. Cabinet Kekkonen II - Urho Kekkonen (Landbund) - Government: Landbund, Social Democrats, Swedish People's Party, Progress Party ( January 17, 1951 to September 20, 1951 )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Official result of the 1948 general election yle.fi (Finnish)
2. ↑ ^{a b} National election in Finland (1948-07-02) ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ParlGov (English) 

Web links

• History in Postage Stamps - Finnish Postage Stamps - Post War