On March 18, 2007 parliamentary elections took place in Finland. The result was a victory for the opposition National Coalition Party, i.e. the conservatives. The party obtained 22.3 % of the votes, an increase of 3.7 % compared to the previous parliamentary elections. The losers of the elections...
Right-wing populist anti-immigration parties, such as the National Front in France, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Progress Party in Norway and the Danish People’s Party have done well in many European countries over the last couple of decades. So far Finland has been seen as an exception in...
In this article, our aim is to outline how the Opiskelijatoiminta Network (Student Action, henceforward OT) began at the University of Helsinki during the academic year 2008-2009. We hope that this article will, in addition to giving a sort of “freeze frame” of the process and experiences behind the...
The European Parliament election results have been disappointing for the left around Europe. One of the countries where the left suffered heavy defeat was Finland. According to the Nice Treaty, the total number of seats for Finnish representatives in the EP decreased to 13. In the EP elections of...
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...
Election results in Finland
The Left managed to win by a clear margin in the elections in Finland. Increasing their share of the vote by 3.4 per cent, the Left Alliance was able to rightly call itself the real winner of these elections. This result also meant the Left Alliance’s return to the...
The current situation of the Left in Finland has been characterised by the recent experiment of the Left in government. Dubbed the ”six-pack”, the government of 2011-2014 consisted of a wide range of parties with absolutely no political kinship. While the Finnish political system has always been characterised by ideologically diverse coalition governments, the ”six-pack” government was exceptional even by Finnish standards.
The conservative National Coalition Party has emerged victorious in Finland's tightly fought general election. The far-right populist party The Finns achieved its best result to date, placing second. Despite gains, the Social Democrats could only manage third place.
Jukka Pietiläinen analyses the left positions on Sweden´s and Finland´s NATO membership. Both countries intend to join NATO, however, perspectives and opinions on this issue are divided.
Duroyan Fertl interviewed Pinja Vuorinen, Chair of the Left Youth of Finland, about the consequences of the war in Ukraine on Finland and its current steps towards NATO.
The purpose of the vote was to elect representatives for the 21 county councils, newly formed public law entities which will take control of healthcare and social and emergency services.
On Thursday 6 June a centre-left coalition, including Left Alliance and led by Social Democratic Party, was formed. A very progressive government programme was adopted, although some conflicts are just postponed.
Left Alliance won in Finnish parliamentary elections for the first time since 1995. Social Democratic Party won and became the largest party in parliament but also right-wing populist The Finns party preserved its former support and became second. Finnish parliament is now more left-wing and green, but also more split than before.
Good news from the North: In the Finnish municipal elections on 9 April 2017, the Left Alliance reached 8.8% of the vote which corresponds to a plus of 0.8%. The success was due to a successful election campaign and the good work of party chairperson Li Andersson.
On 9 April municipal elections will take place in Finland. Experience shows that the more candidates a party puts forward, the better its electoral result. What is more, polls are also predicting a positive outcome for the “Left Alliance” – for the first time since 1976, the party has reason to hope for success.
12 000 people took the streets of Helsinki on 22 August, under the slogan “Joukkovoima” (Peoples power - Fuerza colectiva) against government austerity measures .
The parliamentary elections in Finland mid April resulted in a major defeat for the left. The expected victory for the Left Alliance changed into a defeat from 8.1 % support in 2011 to 7.1 % now. A loss of seats from 14 to 12.
The past election period has been demanding for the government. Many commentators consider the sitting government as one of the worst in the Finnish history. The economic situation of Finland is gloomy. The government has failed to implement each and every one of its planned large-scale reforms. Out of the original six parties only four are left, after the Left Alliance and the Greens quit the government in 2014. The instability of the government increased after these two junior partners had left it.
The Finnish Left Alliance held its party congress during June 8-9 in Tampere, Finland. The congress approved a visionary and programmatic paper Red-Green Future, which outlines the central features of a red-green society and describes what kind of measures need to be taken for achieving it.
The first wave of success of Finnish populist right seems to be over. In the municipal elections held on October 28th, the party got only 12.3 % of votes as compared to 19.0 % in the parliamentary elections of spring 2011.
On Sunday, 5 February, Mr Sauli Niinistö of the centre-right National Coalition Party was elected as the 12th president of the Republic of Finland. In the final round of the elections he beat the Green Party candidate Mr Pekka Haavisto overwhelmingly with 62.6% against Haavisto’s 37.4%. The National...
Presentation at Nordic Conference
The global financial crisis – and the answers from the left-wing
Christiansborg, The Parliament, Copenhagen, Mon 26 + Tue 27 January 2009
This international hybrid event brings together organisations and activists working for peace and the environment in Finland and internationally and aims to create discussions about the common goals of the peace and environmental movements and to build a path towards a new joint action of people's movements on behalf of humanity and the planet.