Electoral Analysis
European Parliament Elections 2019 in Finland
Finland elects 13 MEPs (14 after Brexit). The whole country is one constituency and there is no barrier, expcept the number of MEPs. In practice, around 6% of votes is enough for one seat, 12% for two seats and 18% for three seats. A voter need to elect a candidate which belongs to party list or electoral alliance. The seats are distributed between parties on the basis of the total number of votes given for the candidates of a party and inside the party list those are elected who get the highest number of votes. This increases intra-party competition between candidates and parties need to include candidates with different profiles in order to get a good result.
Finland had parliamentary elections on 14 April, which resulted increase of support for SDP, Greens and Left Alliance and decrease for Centre party (Centrist, conservative, rural interests). SDP became largest party and the party chairperson Antti Rinne started negotiations to form government with SDP, Left Alliance, Greens, Centre party and Swedish people’s party. The aim was to finish negotiations before European elections but the timetable was too tight and negotiations will come to the end only during this week.
Turnout was highest in Finnish European elections (except 1996 when MEPs were elected at the same time with local elections) 42,7% (those living in Finland) or 40,7% (including citizens living outside Finland). This is however lower than in national elections in which turnout is around 70%.
Results
Party
Votes
%
MEPs
change from 2014
% change
MEP change
Change from April 2019
National Coalition Party
380,106
20.8
3
-10,270
-1.8
0
3.8
Green League
292,512
16.0
2
131,249
6.7
1
4.5
Finnish Social Democratic Party
267,342
14.6
2
54,561
2.3
0
-3.1
The Finns Party
252,990
13.8
2
30,533
1.0
0
-3.6
Centre Party of Finland
247,416
13.5
2
-92,479
-6.1
-1
-0.2
Left Alliance
125,749
6.9
1
-35,325
-2.4
0
-1.3
Swedish People's Party
116,033
6.3
1
-714
-0.4
0
1.8
Christian Democrats
89,166
4.9
0
-1,420
-0.4
0
1.0
Seven Star Movement
16,140
0.9
0
16,140
0.9
0
0.5
Pirate Party of Finland
12,558
0.7
0
180
-0.0
0
0.1
Blue Reform
6,044
0.3
0
6,044
0.3
0
-0.6
Feminist Party
4,458
0.2
0
4,458
0.2
0
0.0
Junes Lokka (a single candidate)
4,064
0.2
0
4,064
0.2
0
0.2
Communist Party of Finland
3,659
0.2
0
-2,273
-0.1
0
0.1
Liberal party – Freedom of Choice
3,012
0.2
0
3,012
0.2
0
0.0
Animal Justice Party of Finland
2,924
0.2
0
2,924
0.2
0
0.1
Finnish People First
2,568
0.1
0
2,568
0.1
0
0.1
Citizen Party
2,058
0.1
0
2,058
0.1
0
-0.1
Total
1,828,799
100.0
13
Non-valid votes
6,331
0.3
Total
1,835,130
100.0
The results in the table are based on preliminary counting a votes. All the votes will be recounted before 29 May when the final results will be published. However, the result is clear enough that no change in MEP seats can be expected.
Votes of Left Alliance candidates (comparison to 2014 for those who were candidates also in 2014).
Candidate
votes in 2019
votes in 2014
Modig, Silvia
51608
7260
Kyllönen, Merja
23263
58611
Sarkkinen, Hanna
10908
7342
Haglund, Mia
5303
Halonen, Miila
3901
Nevanlinna, Tuomas
3628
Käppi, Matleena
2817
Lindfors, Jaakko
2808
Torkkola, Sinikka
2777
1792
Moisanen, Sari
2612
Ahlfors, Tiina
2505
Mäkipää, Anna
2117
Lientola, Elisa
2051
Majok, Ajak
2005
Mielonen, Joona
1496
Säynevirta, Sami
1448
Haaja, Ilpo
1341
Parkkila, Janne
1155
Linna, Jukka
1007
Kaakkuriniemi, Tapani
999
Left Alliance kept its MEP although the number of votes decreased from 2014. In 2014 Left Alliance had two main candidates with different profiles, Merja Kyllönen (58 611 votes), appealing more to older generation and in Northern Finland, and Li Andersson (47 599 votes), appealing more to young, urban, red-green voters. Now, there was only one main candidate, Silvia Modig (MP in Finnish parliament 2011-2019), who failed to get to Finnish parliament in April and decided to run for a MEP seat. She was a candidate also in 2014 but remained in the shadow of two main candidates. Merja Kyllönen was also a candidate, but she had announced that she will stay in Finnish parliament to which she was elected in April, because of personal reasons. Despite this she became second among Left Alliance candidates and got over 23 000 votes.
Smaller parties of the left did not get large amount of votes: Communist party got 0,2% (-0,1%) as well as Feminist party (new).
In general, the election result is very close with the result of April 2019 parliamentary elections. Pro-European parties, the Greens, Coalition Party, Swedish People’s party, get higher support than in parliamentary elections while the Finns party and Social Democrats lost. The only change in MEPs is that Centre party lost one seat and Greens got one more. Moreover, after Brexit, when Finland will get one MEP more, that new MEP will be from Greens. Greens became the second largest party for the first time (not including presidential elections of 2012 and 2018). Centre party is still suffering from its participation in centre-right coalition government, which policies were not liked by the rural voters.
From Coalition party a re-elected MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen is more ecologist and liberal, perhaps even left-wing than her party, also MEP from Swedish People’s party Nils Torvards (father of Linux inventor Linus Torvalds) is former hard-line communist journalist from 1970s and still pretty leftist and liberal. From the Finns party a moderate MEP Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner could not renew her seat but the Finns are represented by a creationist teacher Laura Huhtasaari (Finnish Marine LePen) and Finnish MP and former saw-mill owner Teuvo Hakkarainen, who has been convicted of assault and sexual harassment of another MP and suspected from racial hatred because of his talks which he defended by claiming that he comes from a rural background. The new MEPs from the Finns party are certainly more colourful than the former ones.
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