Parliamentary election in Finland 2011

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Result (in%)

 %

30th

20th

10

0

20.4

19.1

19.1

15.8

8.1

7.3

4.3

4.0

1.9

COOK

SDP

PS

KESK

VAS

VIHR

RKP

KD

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2007

 % p

 16

 14th

 12

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

-1.9

-2.3

+15.0

-7.3

-0.7

-1.2

-0.3

-0.9

-0.4

COOK

SDP

PS

KESK

VAS

VIHR

RKP

KD

Otherwise.

Distribution of seats

        

A total of 200 seats

• VAS : 14
• SDP : 42
• VIHR : 10
• RKP : 10
• KESK : 35
• KOK : 44
• KD : 6
• PS : 39

Election posters in Turku

Election posters in Helsinki

The 2011 parliamentary elections in Finland took place on April 17, 2011. It was the election for the 36th Finnish parliament .

The National Coalition Party Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen reached 20.4 percent of the vote, becoming the strongest force. The Social Democrats won 19.1 percent of the vote, the worst result ever. With a gap of just under 1,500 votes and also 19.1 percent, the base Finns came third. The party led by Timo Soini was able to more than quadruple its result in relation to the 2007 election. The Finnish Center Party of Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi was one of the losers in the election . The center lost more than seven percentage points and achieved the worst result since 1917 with 15.8 percent.

Starting position

In 2007 the Center Party was able to defend its position as the strongest force. It received 23.1% of the vote and formed the largest parliamentary group in the Finnish Parliament with 51 out of 200 seats . The conservative rallying party (Kansallinen Kokoomus) got 50 seats. It was followed by the Social Democrats (SDP) with 45 seats. Also represented in parliament were the Left Alliance (17 seats), the Green Bund (15 seats), the Finnish Christian Democrats (7 seats), the Swedish People's Party (10 seats, including the Åland mandate) and the Basic Finns (5 seats). After the parliamentary elections on March 18, 2007 Matti Vanhanen (center) formed a government with the rally party, the Greens and the Swedish People's Party . On June 22, 2010, Vanhanen was replaced by Mari Kiviniemi.

Map by municipalities ;

Collection party

Social democrats

Base fins

center

Left collar

Swedish People's Party

Christian Democrats

Åland mandate

Electoral system

Finland is divided into 15 constituencies, each with a certain number of the total of 200 seats. The D'Hondt method is used to count .

The electoral districts are (the number of mandates in brackets):

• Helsinki (21)
• Uusimaa (35)
• Varsinais Suomi (17)
• Satakunta (9)
• Åland to Ahvenanmaa (1)
• Malice (14)
• Pirkanmaa (18)
• Kymi (12)
• South Savo - Etelä-Savo (6)
• North Savo to Pohjois-Savo (9)
• North Karelia to Pohjois-Karjala (6)
• Vaasa (17)
• Central Finland to Keski-Suomi (10)
• Oulu (18)
• Lapland to Lappi (7)

Parties

17 registered parties ran for election.

The following parties were already represented in parliament:

logo		Political party	Alignment	Top candidate
		Finnish Center Party Suomen Keskusta (KESK) Centern i Finland (CENT)	social liberal	Mari Kiviniemi
		National Collection Party Kansallinen Kokoomus (KOK) Samlingspartiet (SAML)	conservative	Jyrki Katainen
		Social Democratic Party of Finland Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (SDP) Finlands Socialdemokratiska Parti (SDP)	social democratic	Jutta Urpilainen
		Left Alliance Vasemmistoliitto (VAS) Vänsterförbundet (VÄNST)	socialist	Paavo Arhinmäki
		Green Bund Vihreä liitto (VIHR) Gröna förbundet (GRÖNA)	green	Anni Sinnemäki
		Finnish Christian Democrats Kristillisdemokraatit (KD) Kristdemokraterna (KD)	Christian Democratic	Päivi Räsänen
		Swedish People's Party Ruotsalainen kansanpuolue (RKP) Svenska folkpartiet (SFP)	liberal	Stefan Wallin
		Base fins Perussuomalaiset (PS) Sannfinländarna (SAF)	right-wing populist	Timo Soini

Other parties involved:

• Communist Party of Finland
• Seniors Party of Finland
• Independence party
• For the poor
• Communist Labor Party of Finland
• Labor Party of Finland
• Pirate Party (started for the first time)
• Change in 2011 (started for the first time)
• Freedom Party (first started)

Survey

The last twelve months before the election in April 2011 were marked by a strong surge in popularity among the base Finns, who in the monthly surveys carried out by Taloustutkimus increased their share of the vote from 6.3% in February 2010 to up to 17.2% in March 2011. Almost all the other parties represented in parliament suffered losses in the polls, including the Center Party, which in the April 2011 poll only came to 18.6%.

Election result

Nationwide vote count

Result of the parliamentary election in Finland 2011

Political party		be right			Seats
		number	%	+/-	number	+/-
	National Collection Party (KOK)	599.138	20.4	−1.9	44	−6
	Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP)	561,558	19.1	−2.3	42	−3
	Basic fins (PS)	560.075	19.1	+15.0	39	+34
	Finnish Center Party (KESK)	463.266	15.8	−7.3	35	−16
	Left Alliance (VAS)	239.039	8.1	−0.7	14th	−3
	Green Bund (VIHR)	213.172	7.3	−1.2	10	−5
	Swedish People's Party (RKP)	125,785	4.3	−0.3	9	± 0
	Finnish Christian Democrats (KD)	118,453	4.0	−0.9	6th	−1
	Pirate Party (PP)	15,103	0.5	+0.5	-	-
	Communist Party of Finland (SKP)	9,232	0.3	−0.4	-	-
	Åland coalition	8,546	0.3	-	1	± 0
	Change 2011 (M11)	7,504	0.3	+0.3	-	-
	Freedom Party - Finland's Future (VP)	4,285	0.1	+0.1	-	-
	Independence party	3,236	0.1	−0.1	-	-
	Seniors Party of Finland (SSP)	3,195	0.1	−0.5	-	-
	Workers' Party of Finland (STP)	1,857	0.1	+0.1	-	-
	Communist Labor Party (KTP)	1,575	0.0	−0.1	-	-
	For the poor	1,335	0.0	−0.1	-	-
	Others	3,217	0.1	-	-	-
total		2,939,571	100.0		200
Valid votes		2,939,571	99.4
Invalid votes		16,294	0.6
voter turnout		2,955,865	67.4
Eligible voters		4,387,701	100.0
Source: Finnish Ministry of Justice

The turnout was 70.5% and thus slightly higher than in the 2007 parliamentary elections.

Results by constituency

Result of the parliamentary election in Finland 2011

district	voter turnout	Parties
		COOK	SDP	PS	KESK	VAS	VIHR	RKP	KD	Other
Helsinki	75.5	27.3	17.5	13.0	4.5	10.4	16.7	5.8	2.4	2.4
Uusimaa	72.9	28.4	19.3	18.8	6.4	5.1	9.1	8.3	2.8	1.8
Varsinais-Suomi	71.2	23.0	19.6	18.1	11.6	9.6	7.3	5.5	2.9	2.4
Satakunta	69.5	17.6	24.0	23.6	16.1	10.9	3.8	-	3.4	0.6
Åland	51.1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	100.0
Malice	68.8	22.5	24.1	20.6	13.2	6.9	4.5	-	6.8	1.4
Pirkanmaa	71.5	22.3	21.6	21.1	10.4	8.3	8.3	-	5.0	3.0
Kymi	67.4	18.0	24.6	23.3	16.8	5.7	4.2	-	6.6	0.8
South Savo	66.5	14.1	24.0	20.5	26.8	2.2	7.1	-	4.5	0.8
North Savo	66.3	16.4	18.3	20.8	25.4	8.4	5.5	-	3.9	1.3
North Karelia	65.7	10.5	26.4	23.1	26.2	4.2	5.4	-	2.8	1.4
Vaasa	73.2	14.1	14.0	17.2	22.6	3.7	1.4	19.4	6.6	1.0
Central Finland	69.0	15.0	21.2	18.1	21.8	9.0	6.5	-	6.4	2.0
Oulu	67.7	11.9	11.0	20.1	33.4	14.5	4.9	0.2	2.8	1.2
Lapland	67.5	12.5	11.8	20.5	32.2	16.7	3.4	0.4	1.6	0.9
Finland	70.5	20.4	19.1	19.1	15.8	8.1	7.3	4.3	4.0	1.9
Source: yle.fi

Results by municipalities

• 

  National rally party
• 0-10%
• 10-15%
• 15-20%
• 20-25%
• 25-30%
• 30-35%
• 35-40%
• 40-100%
• 

  Social democrats
• 0-10%
• 10-15%
• 15-20%
• 20-25%
• 25-30%
• 30-35%
• 35-100%
• 

  Base fins
• 0-10%
• 10-15%
• 15-20%
• 20-25%
• 25-30%
• 30-35%
• 35-40%
• 40-45%
• 45-50%
• 50-100%
• 

  Center Party
• 0-10%
• 10-15%
• 15-20%
• 20-25%
• 25-30%
• 30-35%
• 35-40%
• 40-45%
• 45-50%
• 50-100%

After the election

After the election, it was expected that Katainen would, among other things, want to form a government with the base Finns. However, after the Katainens gathering party had agreed to activate the European Stabilization Mechanism for Portugal, the grassroots Finns withdrew their commitment to participate in the government. Katainen then began coalition talks with the Greens, the Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats, as well as with the Social Democrats. On June 22, 2011, the new government of Finland was finally sworn in. The left-wing alliance left the coalition on March 25, 2014, after two members of the parliamentary group had already resigned. The remaining five governing parties provided 110 of the 200 seats. Katainen announced his resignation as Prime Minister in the spring of 2014 in order to be able to hold an EU office after the European elections. His successor was his party colleague Alexander Stubb, who continued the cabinet of Katainen, but restructured some posts. At the end of September 2014, the Green Bund left the coalition after the cabinet voted 10 to 7 to build another nuclear power plant in Pyhäjoki . Stubb's coalition now has 102 seats.

72. Cabinet Katainen - Jyrki Katainen (Collection Party) - Collection Party, Social Democratic Party, Left Alliance (until March 25, 2014), Green Bund, Swedish People's Party, Christian Democrats (June 22, 2011 to June 24, 2014)
73. Stubb Cabinet - Alexander Stubb (Collection Party) - Collection Party, Social Democratic Party, Green Bund (until September 26, 2014), Swedish People's Party, Christian Democrats (since June 24, 2014)

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Official result of the 2011 parliamentary elections Finnish Ministry of Justice (Finnish, English)
2. ↑ Euro opponents triumph in Finland Spiegel Online, April 18, 2011
3. ↑ finlex.fi: Valtioneuvoston asetus kansanedustajien paikkojen jaosta vaalipiirien kesken (Finnish; accessed April 14, 2011)
4. ↑ vaalit.fi: List of Registered Parties ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2011 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. (English, accessed April 14, 2011) 
5. ↑ focus.de: Finland gets new coalition due to EU dispute (May 12, 2011; accessed on May 23, 2011)
6. ↑ Greens leave Finland's government because of the construction of a nuclear power plant , Neues Deutschland , September 28, 2014

Web links

Commons : Parliamentary Election in Finland 2011  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Finnish Parliament (Finnish, Swedish, English, French)