Presidential election in Finland 1956

Urho Kekkonen

In the presidential election in Finland in 1956 was Urho Kekkonen first time to the President of the Republic of Finland selected. The run-up to the election was marked by a strong polarization of the political landscape in Kekkonen supporters and opponents. Kekkonen's main opponents were the Social Democrat Karl-August Fagerholm and Sakari Tuomioja, who stood up for the conservative opposition . In the election campaign, Kekkonen's politics of rapprochement with the Soviet Union and the more independent and western-oriented politics propagated by his opponents were pointedly opposed.

The elections to the Electoral Committee on January 16 and 17, 1956 strengthened Kekkonen, but did not result in clear majorities. The actual presidential election by the Electoral Committee on February 15, 1956 turned out to be dramatic. In the second ballot, the conservative parties brought in incumbent Juho Kusti Paasikivi as a new candidate. Tactical choice behavior of the communist People Democratic provided but that in the runoff faced configured third ballot Kekkonen and Fagerholm. Here Kekkonen finally won with 151 to 149 votes. The fact that the narrow majority came about caused speculation in Finland for decades.

Office and electoral process

One of the defining features of the Finnish constitution of 1919 was the strong position of the president. The President was the Commander-in-Chief of the Army; foreign policy was under his authority. He had the right at any time to dissolve parliament at his own discretion and to call new elections. Laws passed by parliament generally require the signature of the president. If he refused to issue it, the law could only be passed again by the new parliament after the next parliamentary elections. In this case it came into force even without the President's copy.

The president was elected for a term of six years through a 300-person electoral committee directly elected by the people. In the elections to the electoral committee, electoral alliances regularly took place, each of which supported a specific presidential candidate. The electors were free to exercise their mandate, however, and it was neither excluded nor unusual for new candidates to be brought into play during the election process in the electoral committee. In the electoral committee, the president was elected in up to three ballots. An absolute majority of the electors was required in the first two ballots. If no candidate achieved this majority, the two candidates with the most votes were cast in the third ballot.

Starting position

At the time of the rotating election of the Finnish President in 1956, the incumbent President Juho Kusti Paasikivi was 85 years old. Paasikivi had shaped the post-war policy of Finland during his tenure since 1946. His name stood for a policy of reconciliation and friendly relations with the former war opponent, the Soviet Union, and for Finland to abstain as much as possible from the conflicting interests of the great powers. Domestically, this so-called Paasikivi Line faced a strong opposition that stretched from the conservative camp with the National Collection Party at its head to the Western and anti-communist-oriented Social Democratic Party .

Urho Kekkonen from the peasant party Landbund has been one of the most important personal pillars of the Paasikivi line for years . Even more than Paasikivi, Kekkonen advocated not only Soviet relations but also domestic political involvement of the Finnish communists in responsibility. Kekkonen was already involved in 1944/45 as Minister of Justice under Prime Minister Paasikivi in ​​the coalition of the "big three" made up of the Landbund, Social Democrats and the parliamentary organization of the communists, the Democratic Union of the Finnish People (People's Democrats). Under Paasikivi's presidency, Kekkonen was prime minister in five governments between 1950 and 1956.

The governments of this period, in addition to Kekkonen's governments, a cabinet each under Sakari Tuomioja and Ralf Törngren , repeatedly fell over domestic political crises. The inflation , which threatened to get out of control, always fueled new labor disputes, in whose line of fire the government was always in the thick of the regulation of the economy. The strikes were, however, also a means in the political power struggle, especially between social democrats and communists, who vied for control of the trade unions . Kekkonen's governments in particular had to contend with severe criticism from the conservative camp, but also from the right wing of the Landbund itself, which was sparked by the foreign policy line as well as by the costly measures to contain inflation.

A confidante of Paasikivi's and long-time prime minister, Kekkonen was an obvious candidate to succeed the president. The political opponents, on the other hand, formed essentially with the common goal of preventing Kekkonen from becoming president. This is how board member Lauri Aho put it at the meeting of the party council of the collection party:

"If one wanted to characterize the upcoming presidential election simply and completely openly, then the question is whether or not Doctor Kekkonen will become head of the republic next February."

The strongest party in Finland in terms of representation in parliament was the Social Democrats, which won 54 of the 200 seats in the 1954 elections. They were followed by the Landbund with 53 seats and the People's Democrats with 43 seats. The collection party was one of the smaller parties with 24 seats. The medium-sized People's Party of Finland had 13 seats, while the Swedish People's Party , which represented the interests of the Swedish-speaking minority, had 12 seats.

Candidates

The parties represented in parliament consistently decided to put up their own candidates for the presidential election and to forego electoral alliances. The expected escalation of the question for or against Kekkonen was already an important factor when choosing the candidate.

Cookies

The Landbund was the first party to officially name its presidential candidate. As early as September 1954, the district associations began to declare Urho Kekkonen as their candidate. In November, Kekkonen's home association, the Kainuu district association, decided to submit a formal nomination to the party council.

However, Kekkonen's nomination was not entirely unanimous. Kekkonen had never been undisputed in his own party. The right wing of the party in particular had fought bitterly Kekkonen's growing influence. As with the critics from other parties, the main point of friction was the policy of rapprochement with the Soviet Union. Inside the party, however, Kekkonen's tendency to take important political decisions without consulting party organs had also caused anger. The opposition within the party had weakened over the course of the 1950s, but had not died down. The district association of Central Ostrobothnia only five days after the decision from Kainuu put Viljami Kalliokoski as an opposing candidate. Kalliokoski had been a member of parliament almost continuously from 1922 and was chairman of the party from 1941 to 1945. As a representative of the old politics, he was one of the forces that were pushed out of politics in 1945, particularly at the instigation of Kekkonen.

In its decision on December 9, 1954, the party council stood by a clear majority, 62 against 10 votes, behind Kekkonen, who was nominated as a candidate. The inner-party opposition subsequently held on to Kalliokoski as a kind of reserve candidate. In March 1955, when Kekkonen came under fire for alleged involvement in a brawl, the opposition publicly opposed him. Ultimately, however, the opposition did not get through. The party's district assemblies in September 1955 unanimously supported Kekkonen and only nominated candidates who clearly supported Kekkonen for the election.

Fagerholm

In the Social Democratic Party, the election of candidates led to a split into two camps. The party's most prominent politician in the post-war period was Karl-August Fagerholm . Between 1948 and 1950 he had headed a social democratic minority government as prime minister. During this time he had succeeded in suppressing the post-war influence of the communists in politics and society. During this phase, however, there was also a hardening of relations with the Soviet Union. From the replacement of his government until the presidential election in 1956, Fagerholm was officially Finland's second highest official as President of Parliament.

Parts of the party, however, had concerns about Fagerholm's candidacy. He was considered too friendly to the Soviets to be able to unite the votes of the right-wing camp as an opponent of Kekkonen in a possible runoff election. Therefore, Väinö Tanner was brought into play as an alternative . 74-year-old Tanner was one of the most important politicians in the period before and during the war. As a member of the closest circle of government until 1944, he had a significant influence on Finnish war policy and was one of the main culprits in the eyes of the Soviet Union. After the end of the war, he had to retire from politics and was sentenced to imprisonment in the war guilt trial in 1946. In the 1950s he returned to politics and enjoyed a high reputation in his party, even if he did not hold any formal office at that time.

At the party congress, its procedural committee had an unofficial vote carried out to clarify the mood. The memory images diverge beyond their exit. Fagerholm remembers receiving one more vote than Tanner. Tanner biographer Hakalehto, on the other hand, reports that Tanner is two votes ahead. In any case, the voice did not create clarity. However, Tanner had made clear support in the party a condition for his candidacy. After a vote, the procedural committee of the party congress therefore took the position of only proposing Fagerholm to the party congress for the actual candidate election. This became the social democratic presidential candidate.

Remaining candidates

The Democratic Union of the Finnish People first tried to come to an agreement with the Social Democrats on a common candidate for the workers' movement. However, the negotiations were fruitless. This is how the People's Democrats set up their MP, Eino Kilpi . Kilpi was originally a social democrat and from 1932 to 1947 editor-in-chief of the party organ Suomen Sosialidemokraatti . In the final phase of the war he belonged to the so-called peace opposition, which advocated a quick separate peace with the Soviet Union. In the coalition of the "big three" from 1946 to 1948 he was first education and then interior minister. During this time he moved to the ranks of the People's Democrats.

The conservative rallying party initially found it difficult to find a candidate who would be able to unite the votes of the opponents of Kekkonen in a runoff against Kekkonen. Efforts were made in vain to win Nobel Prize winners Artturi Ilmari Virtanen or Archbishop Ilmari Salomies as candidates. Finally, in April 1955, the party decided on the then ambassador to London , Sakari Tuomioja . Tuomioja was head of the Finnish central bank from 1945 to 1955. He served as a minister in several governments and was himself prime minister of a transitional government from 1953 to 1954. Tuomioja himself was a member of the small party Liberal Bund , which also named him as a candidate.

The People's Party of Finland entered the race with the Lord Mayor of Helsinki , Eero Rydman . The Swedish People's Party relied on Ralf Törngren , who had been a minister in numerous governments and, as a mediation solution , had taken over the leadership of a government otherwise made up of the Landbund and social democrats in 1954.

Election campaign

Urho Kekkonen's presidential election campaign was supported by an efficient party infrastructure that had been emphatically developed by the General Secretary of the Landbund, Arvo Korsimo , since 1950. It was based on a network of local liaison officers who were prepared for the campaign through training and motivated by face-to-face meetings with Kekkonen. Kekkonen himself spoke at 253 election events nationwide.

Objectively, the campaign focused on the peaceful development of the country under the foreign policy leadership of Kekkonen. Kekkonen was portrayed as the continuation of the successful Paasikivi line. This strategy received a particular boost in the fall of 1955 when Kekkonen traveled to Moscow with President Paasikivi and both received the promise that the Soviet Union would return the Porkkala peninsula , which Finland had to cede as a Soviet military base after the war, prematurely in January 1956 would. In the election propaganda the share of Kekkonen in this success was in the foreground and people began to speak of the Paasikivi-Kekkonen line.

The Social Democrats advertised their candidate with the slogan "Fagerholm - A man of the people to the head of the people." The campaign lagged behind the machinery of the Landbund in its emphasis. According to the businessman Kalle Kaihari , who is close to the Social Democrats, on the one hand this was due to the lack of a maker of the caliber of Korsimos, and on the other hand to the split in the party that occurred in the election. Incidentally, the social democratic election campaign was primarily based on opposition to Kekkonen on the one hand and against the radical left on the other. Secretary General Väinö Leskinen stated in January 1956:

“If not Fagerholm, then at least not Kekkonen. In this country no president can be elected with the help of the communists. "

The right-wing party spectrum, above all the gathering party, took a particularly aggressive stand against Kekkonen. Its decisive role in the war guilt trials was denounced as being just as homeless as the policy of concessions to the Soviet Union. The election of Kekkonen as president would mean the communists' return to government. The attacks also went on a personal level. Kekkonen's way of life is unsteady, he is contentious and violent. These accusations were given particular impetus in February 1955 when Kekkonen was allegedly drunk in a brawl with his former companion and now opponent Tauno Jalanti . The flood of criticism was accompanied by several tabloids that had sprung up from the ground and specialized in reporting on Kekkonen's misconduct.

The election campaign of the People's Democrats, however, largely abstained from any statements on Kekkonen. The propaganda was directed against the “big business representative” Tuomioja and the “right-wing social democrat” Fagerholm. She pointed out that votes given to Fagerholm could end up being votes for Tuomioja. In the later internal party discussion, Kilpi's poor performance was justified in particular by the fact that it had become clear early on that Kekkonen was an acceptable alternative for the communists, and that the voters therefore immediately turned to the latter.

The election campaign of all parties took place primarily at election rallies and through the press. The candidates were not allowed to appear on public broadcasters in Finland in the two months prior to the election. The exception was a series of programs in January in which each candidate was allowed to express themselves once in monologue style.

Elections to the electoral committee

candidate	electors	be right	proportion of
Urho Kekkonen	88	510 783	26.9%
KA Fagerholm	72	442 408	23.3%
Sakari Tuomioja	57	372 973	19.7%
One kilpi	56	354 575	18.7%
Ralf Törngren	20th	130 145	6.9%
Eero Rydman	7th	85 690	4.5%

The fifth elections to the Electoral Committee in independent Finland were held on January 16-17, 1956. For the first time, the electoral law also made it possible to vote in hospitals, the Finnish embassies and on Finnish ships abroad. The turnout was 73.4% higher than ever before in electoral elections, but lower than in the general election in 1954. The vote ended in a clear victory for Kekkonen. His electoral federation received 26.9% of the vote and 88 electors. In 1950, when Kekkonen was also a candidate, he had only won 62 electoral mandates.

The other candidates fell short of expectations. Tuomioja remained with 57 electors only third behind Fagerholm, from whose electoral union 72 electors were elected. With 56 electors, Kilpi achieved a result that was well below the parliamentary strength of his party. Törngren was represented with 20, Rydman with seven electors.

The elections had not given any of the candidates such a victory that his election as president might have seemed certain. The time before the electors met for the presidential election was therefore marked by intensive exploratory talks and negotiations, which, however, did not produce any clear results by election day. In the Kekkonens camp it was assumed that the support of the People's Democrats was essential and that they would also be won over. The missing seven votes were hoped to come from the camp of the Swedish People's Party and the People's Party of Finland. The latter soon assumed a key position with its seven electors. She was also courted by the rally party and the Social Democrats.

Much seemed to depend on who would be Kekkonen's opposing candidate in an accepted third round of voting. In the Landbund it was assumed that the best chance of poaching bourgeois votes would be had if the opponent was Fagerholm. On the other hand, the Social Democrats had also indicated concerns about supporting Tuomioja if he competed against Kekkonen. Soon after the election, the bourgeois press brought the possibility of a common compromise candidate into play. There was speculation with Väinö Tanner on the one hand, and the incumbent President Paasikivi on the other, without the parties having reached a concrete agreement. At the same time, the People's Democrats sounded out again the possibility of a joint candidate with the Social Democrats. But they were not interested. Eventually, the presidential election began on February 15 with the original candidates.

presidential election

candidate	Votes in ballot
	1	2	3
Urho Kekkonen	88	102	151
KA Fagerholm	72	114	149
JK Paasikivi	-	84	-
Sakari Tuomioja	57	-	-
One kilpi	56	-	-
Ralf Törngren	20th	-	-
Eero Rydman	7th	-	-

The 300 electoral men and women met on February 15, 1956 at 3 p.m. in the Parliament building in Helsinki. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Urho Kekkonen in accordance with the constitution, although he was himself a candidate for the presidency. In the first ballot, all groups voted unanimously for their respective candidates. The constitution provided for the immediate holding of the second ballot in the event that none of the candidates received an absolute majority. However, in order to give the political groups another opportunity to negotiate, the meeting was interrupted for the purpose of the vote recount. The break in negotiations lasted for almost four hours.

The negotiations in the corridors and in the halls of the parliament building were feverish. Johannes Virolainen , who was at the forefront of Finnish politics for decades, wrote in 1984:

"Never before and never after have I seen such a flood of negotiations, predictions, rumors and rapidly changing information in the Parliament building as on February 15, 1956."

In a joint negotiation, the rallying party and the two people's parties came to the conclusion that only Paasikivi's candidacy could still prevent Kekkonen from being elected. When contact was made with the incumbent president, he also assumed the support of the Landbund for a candidacy, which under the given circumstances could be regarded as excluded. As a result, representatives of the right wing of the Social Democrats around Tanner campaigned for Paasikivi's election. The majority of the Social Democratic electoral group, however, stuck to the earlier decision that the group should stand united behind Fagerholm until the end. Nonetheless, the rallying party and the popular parties decided to vote for Paasikivi in ​​the second ballot. They assumed that this would easily make it to the third ballot and then also receive the votes of the Social Democrats there. The question of Paasikivi's consent remained unclear, but it was assumed that the support of a large majority would ultimately suffice for him.

Meanwhile, the members of the Landbund tried to secure the support of the People's Democrats. The starting point for this was that the anti-communist Fagerholm could not be elected. On the other hand, Paasikivi as a symbolic figure of the pro-Soviet foreign policy would have been an acceptable candidate for the communists behind the people's democrats. Nevertheless, the group chairmen Arvo Korsimo from the Landbund and Hertta Kuusinen from the People's Democrats were able to agree on a coordinated approach. For the latter, it was crucial that the election of Paasikivi was carried out by the worst political opponents and must therefore be prevented. The People's Democrats therefore promised to divide their votes between Kekkonen and Fagerholm in such a way that they - and not Paasikivi - move into the third ballot.

At around 7.45 p.m. the electors met again and Kekkonen announced the official result of the first round of voting. The second ballot was then passed. In this Fagerholm received 114, Kekkonen 102 and Paasikivi 84 votes.

The actions of the People's Democrats and the departure of Paasikivi caused great anger in the bourgeois camp. A short break from negotiations was also organized after the second ballot. The rallying party decided to stand united behind Fagerholm, although three MPs preferred to vote for Kekkonen. A similar decision was made in the electoral group of the Swedish People's Party. Their elector, Verner Korsbäck , openly opposed this decision and announced that they would vote for Kekkonen. After the first ballot, the Landbund had received signals from the People's Party of Finland that five of the seven electors would support Kekkonen in a decisive ballot. After this initial situation and assuming that the electorate of the Landbund and the People's Democrats would vote together for Kekkonen, there seemed to be a stalemate with 150 to 150 votes. In this case, the lot would have decided the choice.

After the third round of voting, the election officers sorted the ballot papers into stacks for Kekkonen and Fagerholm. Then, around 8:45 p.m., Väinö Leskinen, a member of the election committee and one of Kekkonen's bitterest opponents, read every single ballot aloud, starting with Kekkonen's votes. The name Kekkonen was heard 151 times. After recounting the votes again, the chairman of the meeting, Urho Kekkonen, announced that he had been elected President of the Republic for the term from March 1, 1956 to March 1, 1962, and closed the meeting.

"The decisive voice"

The course and outcome of the elections provoked stormy reactions. The anger of the losers was directed on the one hand against the People's Democrats, who had helped Fagerholm in the third ballot through their tactical vote distribution. On the other hand, the resentment against the "traitors" from the bourgeois camp discharged. Immediately after the election as well as decades later, the question of who cast the decisive 151st vote for Kekkonen was puzzled.

In hundreds of newspaper articles, Anna Flinck and Penna Tervo from the Social Democrats, Ture Hollstén from the Swedish People's Party, Leo Mattila from the People's Party of Finland, and Helena Virkki and Aatto Koivisto from the Collection Party were listed as candidates for the decisive defector . Numerous conflicting revelations have been made over the years. In 1981 Kalle Kaihari reported in a specially published book that he had organized the decisive voice of Penna Tervo. In 2006 the descendants of the late Ture Hollstén announced that he had been the defector. Kekkonen himself also thought he knew the defector. In 1974 he explained to his family that Niilo Kosola of the rallying party had shown him his ballot just before he threw it in the ballot box, and that it had Kekkonen's name on it.

Kekkonen biographer Juhani Suomi notes that after Kekkonen's political position had stabilized, so many electors from the Fagerholm camp admitted to voting for Kekkonen that the outcome should have been completely different. Since he actually considers several defector versions to be credible, he tends to assume that the one decisive vote did not actually exist. Instead, there may have been defectors on both sides, and the groups of the Landbund and the People's Democrats did not actually stand united behind Kekkonen.

Despite all attempts to prevent him, Urho Kekkonen became the eighth President of the Republic of Finland on March 1, 1956. He was to hold this office for almost 26 years until 1982 and thus become the dominant figure in Finnish post-war politics.

literature

• Kalle Kaihari: Ratkaiseva aani (149–151). Jännitysvaalit 1956. Weilin + Göös, Espoo 1981, ISBN 951-35-2470-1 (quoted: Kaihari ).
• Juhani Suomi: Kuningastie. Urho Kekkonen 1950-1956. Otava, Helsinki 1990, ISBN 951-1-10403-9 (quoted: Suomi ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ quoted from Suomi, p. 444. Original quote: Jos tahtoisi yksinkertaisesti ja aivan avoimesti luonnehtia tulevaa presidentinvaalia, niin kysymys on siitä, tuleeko tohtori Kekkosesta tasavallan päämies ensi helmikuussa vai ei.
2. ↑ Suomi, p. 443.
3. ↑ Suomi, pp. 440-443, 460-465.
4. ↑ Suomi, p. 445.
5. ^ Karl-August Fagerholm: Puhemiehen ääni . Tammi, Helsinki 1977, ISBN 951-30-3981-1 , p. 261.
6. ↑ Ilkka Hakalehto: Väinö Tanner. Omalla linjalla. Kirjayhtymä, Helsinki 1974, p. 182.
7. ↑ Suomi, p. 445 f.
8. ↑ Kaihari, p. 57 f.
9. ↑ Suomi, pp. 475-477.
10. ↑ Original: Fagerholm - Kansan bad kansan johtoon. Image of the election poster on the website of the Social Democratic Party of Finland ( Memento of February 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) and at Arjenhistoria.fi .
11. ↑ Kaihari, p. 58 f.
12. ↑ quoted from Suomi, p. 456. Original quote: Ellei Fagerholm, niin ei ainakaan Kekkonen. Tähän maahan ei saa valita presidenttiä communists avulla.
13. ↑ Suomi, pp. 446-456.
14. ^ Suomi, p. 457.
15. ^ Raimo Ranta: Presidenttikysymys 1956. Asetelmat vaalitaistelussa ja niiden esihistoriaa. Pro-Gradu thesis of the University of Helsinki, 1980, p. 49.
16. ↑ Suomi, p. 483 f.
17. ^ Suomi, pp. 483-486.
18. ↑ Suomi, p. 489 f.
19. ↑ Johannes Virolainen: Muistiinpanoja yes myllykirjeitä. Otava, Keuruu 1984, ISBN 951-10-8037-7 , p. 291. Original quote: En ole milloinkaan ennen enkä jälkeen kokenut sellaista neuvottelujen, ennustusten, huhujen ja nopeasti vaihtuvien tietojen tulvaa eduskuntatalossa kuin 15. helmikuuta 1956.
20. ↑ Suomi, pp. 491-494.
21. ↑ Suomi, pp. 494-496.
22. ↑ Suomi, pp. 496-497.
23. ↑ Kaihari, p. 85 f. The radio broadcast of the vote count of the third ballot is available in the living archive of the Finnish Radio .
24. ↑ Kalle Kaihari: Ratkaiseva aani (149-151). Jännitysvaalit 1956. Weilin + Göös, Espoo 1981, ISBN 951-35-2470-1 .
25. ↑ Suku vahvisti: Hollsten äänesti Kekkosta . Article in Helsingin Sanomat of April 2, 2006.
26. ↑ Suomi, p. 499, with reference to Kekkonen's private correspondence and interviews with Kekkonen's son Matti.
27. ↑ Suomi, pp. 498-500.

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on February 12, 2008 in this version .