Social Democratic Party of Finland



















































































Social Democratic Party of Finland
Suomen sosialidemokraattinen puolue[a]
Finlands socialdemokratiska parti

Abbreviation SDP
Leader Antti Rinne
Founded 1899; 119 years ago (1899)
Headquarters Saariniemenkatu 6, Helsinki
Newspaper Demokraatti
Student wing Social Democratic Students
Youth wing Demarinuoret
Membership (2017) nearly 40,000[1]
Ideology
Social democracy[2]
Political position Centre-left
European affiliation Party of European Socialists
International affiliation
Progressive Alliance,
Socialist International
European Parliament group Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
Nordic affiliation SAMAK
Colors
     Red
Parliament

35 / 200

European Parliament

2 / 13

Municipality councils

1,696 / 8,999

Website
https://sdp.fi/


  • Politics of Finland

  • Political parties

  • Elections







  1. ^ For historical reasons, the party's name is spelled in the old-fashioned way, with a short "a".

























The Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP, Finnish: Suomen sosialidemokraattinen puolue, Swedish: Finlands socialdemokratiska parti), shortened to the Social Democrats, is a social-democratic political party in Finland.[2] The party holds 35 seats in Finland's parliament. The party has set many fundamental policies of Finnish society during its representation in the Finnish Government. Founded in 1899, the SDP is Finland's oldest active political party. The SDP has a close relationship with Finland's largest trade union, SAK, and is a member of the Socialist International, the Party of European Socialists, and SAMAK.


Since 2014, the SDP's leader has been Antti Rinne. For the parliamentary term 2015-2019, the SDP is in opposition, and has provided extensive criticism on the actions of the Sipilä Cabinet on matters such as alcohol policy, cuts to education spending, and the so-called "active model".[3]




Contents






  • 1 History


  • 2 Ideology


  • 3 Voter base


  • 4 Recent elections


  • 5 Prominent Social Democrats


  • 6 Leaders of the Social Democrats


  • 7 Election results


    • 7.1 Parliament of Finland


    • 7.2 Municipal


    • 7.3 European Parliament


    • 7.4 Presidential elections


      • 7.4.1 Indirect


      • 7.4.2 Direct






  • 8 References


  • 9 External links





History




The traditional emblem of the party


The SDP was founded as the Finnish Labour Party (Finnish: Suomen Työväenpuolue) in 1899. The name was changed to the present form in 1903. SDP was closely associated with the Finnish Trade Union Federation (SAJ), established in 1907, as all of its members were also members of the party.[4] The party remained a chiefly extra-parliamentary movement until universal suffrage was introduced in 1906 (before Finland's independence from Russia in 1917), after which the SDP's share of the votes reached 47% in 1916, when the party secured a majority in the parliament — the only time in the history of Finland when one party has had such a majority. The party lost its majority in the 1917 election, and in 1918 it started a rebellion that escalated into the Finnish Civil War.


SDP members declared Finland a Socialist Republic, but were defeated by the forces of the Finnish Senate. The war resulted in most of the party leaders being killed, imprisoned or left to seek refuge in Soviet Russia.[citation needed] In addition, the process leading to the Civil War and the war itself had stripped the party of its political legitimacy and respectability in the eyes of the right-wing majority. However, the political support for the party remained strong, and in the election of 1919, the party, reorganised by Väinö Tanner, received 80 of the 200 seats of the parliament. Former exiled SDP members founded the Communist Party of Finland in Moscow in 1918. Although the Communist Party was banned in Finland until 1944, it was represented by front organizations, leading to the support of the Finnish working class being divided between the communist party and the SDP.


It became the life's work of Väinö Tanner to re-establish the SDP as a serious, governing party. The result was a much more patriotic SDP, which leaned less to the left and was relatively isolated from its Nordic sister parties the Swedish Social Democratic Party, the SD in Denmark, and the Norwegian Labour Party. President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud's animosity kept the SDP out of government during his presidency from 1931 to 1937. With the exception of a brief period in 1926, when Tanner formed a minority government, SDP was excluded from cabinet participation until Kyösti Kallio was elected president in 1937. During World War II the party played a central role in a series of broad coalition cabinets, symbolising national unity forged in response to the threat of the USSR in the Winter War in 1939–1940.


The SDP was a member of the Labour and Socialist International from 1923 to 1940.[5]


During the first few months of the Continuation War (1941–1944), the country, the parliament, and the cabinet were divided on the question of whether Finland's army should stop at the old border and thereby demonstratively refrain from any attempt of conquests. However, the country's dangerous position called for national unity, and the SDP's leadership chose to refrain from any visible protests. This decision is sometimes indicated as one of the main reasons behind the post-war division between the main left-wing parties — the SDP and the Communists — and the high percentage of Communist voters in the first elections after the Continuation War.


After the Continuation War, the Communist Party was allowed to continue working, and the main feature of Finnish political life during the 1944–1949 period was the competition between the Social Democrats and the Communists, both for voters and for the control of the labor unions. During this time, the political field was divided roughly equally between the Social Democrats, Communists and the Agrarian League, each party commanding some 25% of the vote. In the post-war era, the Social Democratic Party adopted a line defending Finnish sovereignty and democracy in line with the Agrarian League and other bourgeois political parties, finally leading to the expulsion of the Communists from the cabinet in 1948. However, the Soviet Union remained more openly critical towards the SDP than the centre-right parties.



SDP municipal election poster from 1933. "Municipal power to those who work"


Because of the SDP's anti-communist activities, the United States Central Intelligence Agency supported the party by means of funds laundered through Nordic sister parties, or through organizations that bought "luxury goods" such as coffee abroad, then imported and sold them for a high profit, as post-war rationing served to inflate prices.


In the presidential election of 1956, the SDP candidate Karl-August Fagerholm lost by only one electoral vote to Urho Kekkonen. Fagerholm would act as Prime Minister in the Fagerholm I Cabinet, which ran from 1956 to 1957, and the Fagerholm II Cabinet, which ran from 1958 to 1959. The latter cabinet was forced to resign due to Soviet pressure, leading to a series of cabinets led by the Agrarian League. In 1958, due to the election of Väinö Tanner as party chairman, a faction of the SDP resigned and formed the Alliance of Finnish Workers and Small Farmers (TPSL) around the former SDP chairman Emil Skog. The dispute was over several issues, namely: whether the party should function as an interest group, and whether it should co-operate with the anti-communists and right-wingers, or with president Kekkonen, the Agrarians and the Communists. During the 1960s, the TPSL dwindled, its members returning one by one to the SDP or joining the Communists. The founder himself, Emil Skog, returned to the SDP in 1965. In the parliamentary election of 1970, the TPSL failed to gain any seats in parliament.


Only in 1966 was the SDP able to satisfy the Soviet Union about its friendly attitude towards it, and could thus return to the cabinet. Since then, the SDP has been represented in most Finnish cabinets, often cooperating with the centrist-agrarian Centre Party (formerly the Agrarian League), but sometimes with the liberal-conservative National Coalition Party. The SDP was in opposition from 1991 to 1995, when the main parties in the cabinet were the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party.


The parliamentary election of 1995 saw a landslide victory for the SDP, achieving their best results since World War II. The SDP rose to government from the opposition, and leader Paavo Lipponen headed two consecutive cabinets from 1995 to 2003. During this time, the party adopted a pro-European stance and contributed actively to the Finnish membership in the European Union in 1995 in concert with the cabinet. In the 2003 parliamentary election, the SDP won 53 of the 200 seats, ending up a close second to the Centre Party. As a result, Lipponen became the speaker of parliament, and the Centre Party leader Anneli Jäätteenmäki became the new Prime Minister, leading a coalition cabinet that included the SDP, which got eight ministerial posts. After two months in office, Jäätteenmäki resigned due to a scandal relating to the Iraq leak and was replaced by Matti Vanhanen, another Centre Party representative, who commanded the Vanhanen I Cabinet.


There was an uninterrupted 30-year period of social democratic presidents between 1982 and 2012.



Ideology


The SDP is a centre-left social democratic party. The SDP is opposed to Finland joining NATO; the party is for Finland remaining in the Partnership for Peace. In the 2015 parliamentary election, 91% of SDP candidates were opposed NATO membership.[6]


The SDP is in favor of LGBT adoption rights, the construction of nuclear power plants, the conservation of Swedish as one of Finland's two official languages, and the increase of funding to public universities.[7]


The party is advocating for Finland to become oil-independent by 2030.


The SDP has advocated for policies preventing foreigners from working in Finland.[8] In the 2015 parliamentary election, only the Finns Party had a higher share of candidates opposed to the easing of work-based immigration.[9]


The party opposed economic reforms in the 2011 parliamentary election and in the subsequent government program negotiations.[10][11][12]


The party maintains a close relationship with trade unions. The party has opposed social reforms that would reduce the role of earnings-related unemployment benefits. The government pays them to recipients through financial middlemen that are almost exclusively trade unions.[13]



Voter base


The average age of an SDP member is 61.5 years.[14] Over one half of all SDP voters are active members of the workforce.



Recent elections




Party leader Antti Rinne




Support for the Social Democrats by municipality in the 2011 parliamentary election — the party fared strongest in southern and eastern parts of the country.


In the 2007 parliamentary election, the SDP gained the third-most votes. The chairman of the then-largest Centre Party, Matti Vanhanen, became the Prime Minister, and formed a coalition cabinet consisting of the National Coalition Party, the Green League, and the Swedish People's Party, leaving the SDP to the opposition. SDP leader Eero Heinäluoma did not immediately resign as party chairman, but he did announce his withdrawal from running for party chairman in the following party conference. He was replaced by Jutta Urpilainen. The SDP suffered further losses in the 2008 municipal election and the 2009 European Parliament election.


In the 2011 parliamentary election, the SDP lost three more seats, ending up with 19.1 percent of the vote which corresponded to 42 seats, the party's worst-ever result. However, as the Centre Party lost even more voters, the SDP became the second-largest party in the country after the National Coalition Party, receiving only some 1,500 votes more than the Finns Party, which came in third. After lengthy negotiations, a six-party coalition government, the Katainen Cabinet, was formed with the National Coalition Party and the Social Democrats as the two main parties. SDP leader Jutta Urpilainen became the cabinet's Minister of Finance, with NCP chairman Jyrki Katainen serving as Prime Minister.


In the 2015 parliamentary election, the drop of support continued for the SDP. The party lost eight more seats compared to the 2011 election, ending up with 34 seats and 16.5 percent of the vote. With the repeat of the worst-ever result, the SDP dropped to being the fourth largest political party in Finland, receiving 50,110 fewer votes than the National Coalition Party, yet 237,000 more votes than the Green League.


On 22 June, 2016 Maria Tolppanen, a Finns Party representative, joined the SDP. This increased the SDP's parliamentary seat number to 35.[15]



Prominent Social Democrats
































































Oskari Tokoi
chairman of the Senate in 1917

Yrjö Sirola
founder of the Communist Party of Finland

Väinö Tanner

prime minister 1926–1927

foreign minister 1939–1940



Karl-August Fagerholm
prime minister 1948–1950, 1956–1957 and 1958–1959

speaker of parliament 1945–1948, 1950–1956, 1957–1958, 1958–1962, and 1965–1966



Rafael Paasio
prime minister 1966–1968 and 1972

Kalevi Sorsa
prime minister 1972–1975, 1977–1979, and 1982–1987

Mauno Koivisto
prime minister 1968–1970 and 1979–1982

president 1982–1994



Pentti Väänänen
secretary general of Socialist International 1983–1989

Martti Ahtisaari
president 1994–2000

Nobel Peace Prize laureate 2008



Erkki Tuomioja
foreign minister 2000–2007 and 2011–2015

Paavo Lipponen
prime minister 1995–2003

speaker of the parliament 2003–2007



Tarja Halonen
foreign minister 1995–2000, president 2000–2012

Eero Heinäluoma
speaker of the parliament 2011–2015

Jutta Urpilainen

finance minister and deputy prime minister 2011–2014

Antti Rinne

finance minister and deputy prime minister 2014–2015


Leaders of the Social Democrats











































































































Time
Leader
1899 – 1900

Nils Robert af Ursin
1900 – 1900

J. A. Salminen
1900 – 1903

K. F. Hellstén
1903 – 1905

Taavi Tainio
1905 – 1906

Emil Perttilä
1906 – 1909

Edvard Valpas
1909 – 1911

Matti Paasivuori
1911 – 1913

Otto Wille Kuusinen
1913 – 1917

Matti Paasivuori
1917 – 1918

Kullervo Manner
1918 – 1926

Väinö Tanner
1926 – 1930

Matti Paasivuori
1930 – 1942

Kaarlo Harvala
1942 – 1944

Väinö Salovaara
1944 – 1946

Onni Hiltunen
1946 – 1957

Emil Skog
1957 – 1963

Väinö Tanner
1963 – 1975

Rafael Paasio
1975 – 1987

Kalevi Sorsa
1987 – 1991

Pertti Paasio
1991 – 1993

Ulf Sundqvist
1993 – 2005

Paavo Lipponen
2005 – 2008

Eero Heinäluoma
2008 – 2014

Jutta Urpilainen
2014 –

Antti Rinne

[16][17]



Election results




Parliament of Finland

















































































































































































































































Eduskunta

election


Number of

votes


Share of votes
Number of seats

1907
329,946
37.03%


80 / 200



1908
310,826
38.40%


83 / 200



1909
337,685
39.89%


84 / 200



1910
316,951
40.04%


86 / 200



1911
321,201
40.03%


86 / 200



1913
312,214
43.11%


90 / 200



1916
376,030
47.29%


103 / 200



1917
444,670
44.79%


92 / 200



1919
365,046
37.98%


80 / 200



1922
216,861
25.06%


53 / 200



1924
255,068
29.02%


60 / 200



1927
257,572
28.30%


60 / 200



1929
260,254
27.36%


59 / 200



1930
386,026
34.16%


66 / 200



1933
413,551
37.33%


78 / 200



1936
452,751
38.59%


83 / 200



1939
515,980
39.77%


85 / 200



1945
425,948
25.08%


50 / 200



1948
494,719
26.32%


54 / 200



1951
480,754
26.52%


53 / 200



1954
527,094
26.25%


54 / 200



1958
449,536
23.12%


48 / 200



1962
448,930
19.50%


38 / 200



1966
645,339
27.23%


55 / 200



1970
594,185
23.43%


52 / 200



1972
664,724
25.78%


55 / 200



1975
683,590
24.86%


54 / 200



1979
691,512
23.89%


52 / 200



1983
795,953
26.71%


57 / 200



1987
695,331
24.14%


56 / 200



1991
603,080
22.12%


48 / 200



1995
785,637
28.25%


63 / 200



1999
612,963
22.86%


51 / 200



2003
683,223
24.47%


53 / 200



2007
594,194
21.44%


45 / 200



2011
561,558
19.10%


42 / 200



2015
490,102
16.51%


34 / 200



2019
TBA
TBA
TBA


Municipal


























































































































Year
Councillors
Votes

1945
2,100
265,689


1950

377,294
25.05%

1953

449,251
25.53%

1956

424,977
25.42%

1960
2,261
414,175
21.10%

1964
2,543
530,878
24.75%

1968
2,351
540,450
23.86%

1972
2,533
676,387
27.05%

1976
2,735
665,632
24.82%

1980
2,820
699,280
25.50%

1984
2,830
666,218
24.70%

1988
2,866
663,692
25.23%

1992
3,130
721,310
27.08%

1996
2,742
583,623
24.55%

2000
2,559
511,370
22.99%

2004
2,585
575,822
24.11%

2008
2,066
541,187
21.23%

2012
1,729
487,924
19.57%

2017
1,697
498,252
19.38%


European Parliament






































Election
Votes
Seats

1996
482,577
21.45%


4 / 16



1999
221,836
17.86%


3 / 16



2004
350,525
21.16%


3 / 14



2009
292,051
17.54%


2 / 13



2014
212,211
12.3%


2 / 13




Presidential elections



Indirect






























Year
Candidate
Electors
Votes

1925

Väinö Tanner
79
165,091
26.6%

1931
Väinö Tanner
90
252,550
30.2%

1937

95
341,408
30.7%




















































































Election year
Candidate
Public vote
Electoral college
# of overall votes
% of overall vote
# of overall
seats won
# of overall votes
% of overall vote
# of overall votes
% of overall vote
# of overall votes
% of overall vote

1950

343,828
21.8 (#2)


64 / 300



1956

Karl-August Fagerholm
442,408 23.3
23.3 (#2)


72 / 300




72 / 300


24.0 (#2)


114 / 300


38.0 (#1)


149 / 300


49.7 (#2)

1962

Rafael Paasio
289,366
13.1 (#3)


36 / 300




37 / 300


12.3 (#3)



1968

Urho Kekkonen
315,068
15.5 (#4)


55 / 300




201 / 300


67.0 (#1)



1978

Urho Kekkonen
569,154
23.2 (#1)


74 / 300




259 / 300


86.3 (#1)



1982

Mauno Koivisto
1,370,314
43.1 (#1)


144 / 300




145 / 300


48.3 (#1)


167 / 300


55.7 (#1)


19880
Mauno Koivisto
128
1,175,209
39.36%



Direct



























Election year
Candidate
Public vote
Electoral college
# of overall votes
% of overall vote
# of overall votes
% of overall vote
# of overall votes
% of overall vote

1988

Mauno Koivisto
1,513,234
48.9 (#1)


144 / 301


48.0 (#1)


189 / 301


63.0 (#1)




















































Election year
Candidate
1st round
2nd round
# of overall votes
% of overall vote
# of overall votes
% of overall vote

1994

Martti Ahtisaari
828,038
25.9
1,723,485
53.9 (#1)

2000

Tarja Halonen
1,224,431
40.0 (#1)
1,644,532
51.6 (#1)

2006

Tarja Halonen
1,397,030
46.3 (#1)
1,630,980
51.8 (#1)

2012

Paavo Lipponen
205,020
6.7 (#5)


2018

Tuula Haatainen
97,294
3.3 (#6)


0 The 1988 Presidential election was partially indirect: after Koivisto had failed to get a majority of the popular vote, he was elected president in the electoral college, which the voters voted for alongside the direct vote.
1 first round
2 second round



References





  1. ^ https://sdp.fi/fi/tutustu/tietoa-sdpsta/


  2. ^ ab Nordsieck, Wolfram (2015). "Finland". Parties and Elections in Europe..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}


  3. ^ "Eduskunta hyväksyi työttömyysturvalain aktiivimalleineen – Teollisuusliitto tuomitsee ja väläyttää lakkoa". Yle Uutiset (in Finnish). Retrieved 2018-01-02.


  4. ^ Tepora, Tuomas & Roselius, Aapo: The Finnish Civil War 1918: History, Memory, Legacy, p. 32. Brill Academic Publishers, 2014.
    ISBN 978-900-42436-6-8.



  5. ^ Kowalski, Werner. Geschichte der sozialistischen arbeiter-internationale: 1923 - 19. Berlin: Dt. Verl. d. Wissenschaften, 1985.


  6. ^ "Enemmistö eduskuntavaaliehdokkaista vastustaa Natoa". Iltasanomat. March 14, 2015.


  7. ^ "Values A-Z | Sosialidemokraatit". sdp.fi. Retrieved 2018-02-03.


  8. ^ "No nordic model: Understanding differences in the labour migration policy preferences of mainstream Finnish and Swedish political parties". Comparative European Politics. November 2014.


  9. ^ http://yle.fi/uutiset/centre_party_split_over_immigration/7852232


  10. ^ "Puolueiden mielestä talouskasvu ratkoo ongelmat". Helsingin Sanomat. April 3, 2011. Missing or empty |url= (help)


  11. ^ "Ekonomistit teilaavat puolueiden talouspolitiikan". Helsingin Sanomat. April 3, 2011. Missing or empty |url= (help)


  12. ^ "Sdp:n eläkelinja syntyi puolivahingossa". hs.fi. February 2, 2013.


  13. ^ Osmo Soininvaara (2010). SATA-komitea. Miksi asioista päättäminen on niin vaikeaa.


  14. ^ "Tutkimus: Tällaisia puolueiden jäsenet ovat – keskusta ja SDP eläkeikäisten puolueita ja perussuomalaiset miesten". Yle Uutiset (in Finnish). Retrieved 2017-11-24.


  15. ^ "Perussuomalaisten kansanedustaja loikkaa Sdp:n riveihin". Helsingin Sanomat. 22 June 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2016.


  16. ^ First Chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party.


  17. ^ "Chairmen of SDP". SDP.
    [permanent dead link]





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