Parliamentary election in Finland in 1958

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Result (in%)

 %

30th

20th

10

0

23.2

23.1

23.1

15.3

6.5

5.9

1.8

1.1

SKDL

SDP

ML

COOK

RKP

KP

SD.OPP

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 1954

 % p

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

+1.6

-3.2

-1.0

+2.5

-0.3

-2.0

+1.8

+0.6

SKDL

SDP

ML

COOK

RKP

KP

SD.OPP

Otherwise.

Distribution of seats

      

A total of 200 seats

• SKDL : 50
• SDP : 48
• Otherwise: 11
• RKP : 14
• ML : 48
• KOK : 29

The parliamentary elections in Finland in 1958 took place on July 6th and 7th, 1958. It was the elections for the 22nd Finnish Parliament .

The election gave the People's Democrats the greatest profits. The People's Democrats were also the strongest force ahead of the Social Democratic Party and the Landbund, with the difference in election results between these three parties being just 0.1 percentage points.

Starting position

Since the last general election in March 1954, six cabinets had been in government. Since April 1958 Reino Kuuskoski ruled temporarily as Prime Minister. A split had broken out within the social democratic SDP. The inner-party opposition entered the 1958 election with its own list.

Other domestic political problems included the weakness of Finnmark and rising budget spending and rising unemployment.

Participating parties

13 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	Väinö Tanner
	Landbund Maalaisliitto (ML) Agrarförbundet	social liberal	Vieno Sukselainen
	Democratic Union of the Finnish People Suomen Kansan Demokraattinen Liitto (SKDL) Demokratiska Förbundet för Finlands Folk (DFFF)	socialist	Kusti Kulo
	National Collection Party Kansallinen Kokoomus (KOK) Samlingspartiet	conservative	Jussi Saukkonen
	People's Party of Finland Suomen Kansanpuolue (KP) Finska Folkpartiet (FFP)	liberal	Eino Saari
	Swedish People's Party Ruotsalainen Kansanpuolue (RKP) Svenska Folkpartiet (SFP)	liberal	Lars Erik Taxell

Election result

The turnout was 75.0 percent, 4.9 percentage points below that of 1954.

Result of the parliamentary elections in Finland in 1958

Political party		be right			Seats
		number	%	+/-	number	+/-
	Democratic Union of the Finnish People (SKDL)	450.220	23.16	+1.59	50	+7
	Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP)	449,536	23.12	−3.13	48	−6
	Land Federation (ML)	448.364	23.06	−1.04	48	−5
	National Collection Party (KOK)	297.094	15.28	+2.48	29	+5
	Swedish People's Party (RKP)	126,365	6.50	−0.26	13	+1
	People's Party of Finland (KP)	114,617	5.90	−1.98	8th	−5
	Social Democratic Opposition (SD.OPP)	33,947	1.75	+1.75	3	+3
	Liberal Federation (VL)	6,424	0.33	+0.01	-	-
	Åländsk Samling *	5,487	0.28	+0.05	1	-
	Landbund opposition	5,057	0.26	+0.26	-	-
	Christian Federation of Finland (SKL)	3,358	0.17	+0.17	-	-
	Electoral alliance of the Free People and Center	3,033	0.16	+0.16	-	-
	Electoral alliance of the free economy	331	0.02	+0.02	-	-
	League of National Cooperation	160	0.01	+0.01	-	-
	Others	242	0.01	−0.01	-	-
total		1,944,235	100.00		200
Valid votes		1,944,235	99.48
Invalid votes		10.162	0.52
voter turnout		1,954,397	74.99
Eligible voters		2,606,258	100.00
Source:
Notes: * Åland mandate

Vieno Sukselainen, 1959

After the election

While the SKDL hoped for a coalition with the SDP opposition and the Landbund, which would have just achieved a necessary majority in parliament, President Urho Kekkonen passed over the people's democrats and commissioned Karl-August Fagerholm (SDP) to form a government. Fagerholm formed a government made up of the SDP, the Landbund, the Collection Party, the People's Party of Finland and the Swedish People's Party ( Fagerholm III cabinet ). However, because of the bypassing of the SKDL, relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated noticeably. The Fagerholm government collapsed in December 1958. In January 1959, the Sukselainen II cabinet from the Landbund and the Swedish People's Party (SVP) took over the government. Landbund and SVP only had 61 seats and thus formed a minority government. This lasted until July 1961, when Vieno Sukselainen resigned because of errors in social security policy. Martti Miettunen then formed a cabinet that consisted only of politicians from the Landbund.

Overview of the cabinets:

44. Cabinet Fagerholm III - Karl-August Fagerholm (Social Democratic Party) - Government made up of the Social Democratic Party, Landbund, Raising Party, Swedish People's Party, People's Party of Finland (August 29, 1958 to January 13, 1959)
45. Cabinet Sukselainen II - Vieno Sukselainen (Landbund) - minority government from Landbund, Swedish People's Party (January 13, 1959 to July 14, 1961)
46. Cabinet Miettunen I - Martti Miettunen (Landbund) - minority government from Landbund (July 14, 1961 to April 13, 1962)

Web links

• Finnish postage stamps - crises

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b} Official result of the 1958 parliamentary election yle.fi (Finnish)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Valtiolliset ja kunnalliset vaalit, 1951–2012  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. stat.fi , Excel file