Centre Party (Finland)

Centre Party Finnish: Suomen Keskusta Swedish: Centern i Finland
President	Juha Sipilä
Founded	1906 (1906)
Headquarters	Apollonkatu 11 A 00100 Helsinki
Student wing	Finnish Centre Students
Youth wing	Finnish Centre Youth
Membership  (2011)	163,000[1]
Ideology	Centrism Agrarianism Liberalism
Political position	Centre[2]
European affiliation	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliation	Liberal International
Colours	Green
Parliament	49 / 200
European Parliament	3 / 13
Municipalities	3,077 / 9,674
Website
www.keskusta.fi
Politics of Finland Political parties Elections

The Centre Party of Finland (Finnish: Suomen Keskusta, Kesk; Swedish: Centern i Finland) is a centrist,^[3] agrarian,^[3][4][5][6] and liberal^[4][5][7] political party in Finland. It is one of the four largest political parties in the country, along with the National Coalition Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Finns Party. It has 49 seats in the Finnish Parliament. The Centre Party chairman is Juha Sipilä, who was elected in June 2012 to follow Mari Kiviniemi, the ex-Prime Minister of Finland.

Founded in 1906 as the Agrarian League, the party represented rural communities and supported decentralisation of political power from Helsinki. In the 1920s, the party emerged as the main rival to the Social Democratic Party, and the party's first Prime Minister, Kyösti Kallio, held the office four times between 1922 and 1937. After World War II, the party settled as one of the four major political parties in Finland. Urho Kekkonen served as President of Finland from 1956 to 1982: by far the longest period of any President. The name 'Centre Party' was adopted in 1965, and 'Centre of Finland' in 1988. The Centre Party was the largest party in Parliament from 2003 to 2011, during which time Matti Vanhanen was Prime Minister for seven years. Following the 2011 election, the party was reduced in parliamentary representation from the largest party to the fourth largest, but in 2015 it reclaimed its status as the largest party.

The Centre Party's political influence is greatest in small and rural municipalities, where it often holds a majority of the seats in the municipal councils. Decentralisation is the policy that is most characteristic of the Centre Party. The Centre has been the ruling party in Finland a number of times since Finnish independence. 12 of the Prime Ministers of Finland, three of the Presidents and a former European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs have been from the party. The Finnish Centre Party is the mother organisation of Finnish Centre Youth, Finnish Centre Students, and Finnish Centre Women.

History

Founding

The party was founded in 1906 as a movement of citizens in the Finnish countryside. Before Finnish independence, political power in Finland was centralised in the capital and to the estates of the realm. The centralisation gave space for a new political movement. In 1906 two agrarian movements were founded. They merged in 1908 to become one political party known as the Agrarian League or Maalaisliitto. An older, related movement was the temperance movement, which had overlapping membership and which gave future Agrarian League activists experience in working in an organisation.^[8]

Santeri Alkio's ideology

Soon the ideas of humanity, education, the spirit of the land, peasant-like freedom, decentralisation, "the issue of poor people", progressivism,^[9] and later the "green wave" became the main political phrases used to describe the ideology of the party. Santeri Alkio was the most important ideological father of the party.

Defending the republic

At the dawn of Finnish independence conservative social forces made an attempt to establish the Kingdom of Finland. The Agrarian League opposed monarchism fiercely^[9] even though monarchists claimed that a new king from the German Empire and Hohenzollern would have safeguarded Finnish foreign relations. At this time, anti-anarchist peasants threatened the existence of the party.^[10][11]

Because around 40 Social Democratic members of the Parliament had escaped to Russia after the Finnish Civil War and about 50 others had been arrested, the Agrarian League members of the Parliament became the only republicans in Parliament in 1918. Nevertheless, the news about the problems of the German Empire from German liberals encouraged the fight of Agrarian League in the Parliament.^[12]

The Agrarian League managed to maintain the republican voices in the Parliament until the fall of the German Empire, which ruined the dreams of the monarchists.^[13]

The relentless opposition to the monarchy was rewarded in the parliamentary election 1919 and the party became the biggest non-socialist party in Finland with 19.7% of the votes.

Post-war period

After the 1919 election, the centrist and progressive forces, including the Agrarian League, were constant members in Finnish governments. Their moderate attitude in restless post-war Finland secured a steady growth in following elections. The Party formed many centrist minority governments with National Progressive Party and got its first Prime Ministers Kyösti Kallio 1922 and Juho Sunila 1927.

Conciliation between right and left

For the Agrarian League, the centrist governments were just a transitional period towards an era, which would integrate the "red" and "white" sides of the Civil War into one nation. Nevertheless, not everyone were happy with the conciliatory politics of centrist governments. The extreme right Lapua Movement grew bigger and bigger in the Agrarian League strongholds in the countryside. Many party members joined the new radical movement. The Lapua Movement organised assaults and kidnappings in Finland between 1929 and 1932. In 1930, after the kidnapping of progressive president Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, the Agrarian League broke off all its ties to the movement and got a new political enemy in the countryside - The Patriotic People's Movement (IKL), which was founded after the Lapua Movement was outlawed.^[14]

In the parliamentary election 1933 the main campaign issues were the differing attitudes towards democracy and the rule of law between the Patriotic Electoral Alliance (National Coalition Party and Patriotic People's Movement) and the Legality Front (Social Democrats, Agrarian League, Swedish People's Party and Progressives). The Patriotic Electoral Alliance favoured continuing the search for suspected Communists - the Communist Party and its affiliated organisations in the spirit of the Lapua Movement. The Legality Front did not want to spend any significant time on searching suspected Communists, but rather wanted to concentrate on keeping the far-right in check. The Legality Front won the elections, but the Agrarian League lost a part of its support.^[15][16]

Cooperation with the Social Democrats

Because of fierce opposition of the President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud the Social Democrats remained outside the government and the Agrarian League was part of the centre-right governments until 1937. In 1937 Presidential election the Agrarian League candidate Kyösti Kallio was elected president with the votes of centrist (Agrarian and Progressive) and social-democratic coalition which wanted to ensure that President Svinhufvud would not be re-elected. The new president allowed the first centre-left government to be formed in Finland. A new era had begun.

World War II

With the outbreak of the Winter War a government of national unity was formed. President Kallio died shortly after the war.

Kekkonen, the centrist statesman

In 1956, Urho Kekkonen, the candidate of the Agrarian League, was elected President of Finland, after serving as Prime Minister several times. Kekkonen remained President until 1982. Kekkonen continued the “active neutrality” policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the “Paasikivi–Kekkonen line”. Under it, Finland retained its independence while being able to trade with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members and those of the Warsaw Pact.

Pressure of populism

Veikko Vennamo, a vocal Agrarian politician, ran into serious disagreement particularly with Arvo Korsimo, then Party Secretary of the Agrarian Union, and was excluded from the parliamentary group. As a result, Vennamo immediately started building his own organisation and founded a new party, the Finnish Rural Party (Suomen maaseudun puolue, SMP) in 1959. Vennamo was a populist and became a critic of Kekkonen and political corruption within the "old parties", particularly the Centre Party. Although this party had minor successes, it was essentially tied to Veikko Vennamo's person. His son Pekka Vennamo was able to raise the party to new success in 1983, but after this the Rural Party's support declined steadily and eventually the party went bankrupt in 1995. However, immediately after this, the right-wing populist party True Finns (Perussuomalaiset) was founded by former members of SMP.

Transformation to Centre Party

In 1965, the party changed its name to "Centre Party" or Keskustapuolue and in 1988 took its current name Suomen Keskusta (literally Centre of Finland). Despite urbanisation of Finland and a temporary nadir in support, the party managed to continue to attract voters.

The Liberal People's Party (LKP) became a 'member party' of the Centre Party in 1982. The two separated again after the success of the Liberal People's Party in Sweden in 1985.^[17]

Division over EU membership

The Centre Party was a key player in making the decision to apply for Finnish EU membership in 1992. As the leading governing party its support for the application was crucial. The party itself, both leadership and supporters, was far from united on the issue. In the parliament 22 out of 55 Centre MPs voted against the application. In June 1994 the party congress decided to support EU membership (by 1607 votes to 834), but only after the Prime Minister and party chairman Esko Aho threatened to resign if the party were to oppose the membership.

The centrist tradition of defending equal political and economic rights for peripheral areas was reflected in the internal resistance that opposed chairman Aho's ambitions to lead Finland to the EU.^[18] The Centre Party was in opposition 1995—2003 and opposed adopting the euro as Finland's currency. However, after regaining power in 2003, the party accepted the euro.

21st century developments

The party congress in June 2012 elected the newcomer Juha Sipilä to replace Mari Kiviniemi as the party's chair. Sipilä defeated young deputy chairman Tuomo Puumala and a well known veteran politician Paavo Väyrynen in the voting.

The previous chairman, Mari Kiviniemi, succeeded Matti Vanhanen as Prime Minister in 2010, serving in the office for one year. At the time she was the third Centre Party Prime Minister of Finland in succession. Anneli Jäätteenmäki preceded Vanhanen and she was the first woman as a Prime Minister of Finland. She did not seek another term as party chair.

Olli Rehn, a member of the party, served in the European Commission for ten years between 2004 and 2014, and was the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs in 2010–2014.

The Centre Party was the biggest loser of the 2011 parliamentary election, losing 16 seats and going from largest party to fourth place. The party's support was lower than in any parliamentary election since 1917. However, the party won the 2015 parliamentary elections and formed a coalition with the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party.

In March 2016, the Centre Party announced that its candidate for the 2018 presidential election will be the former Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, the first declared presidential candidate in the race.^[19][20][21]

Stance

The ideology of the party is unusual in the European context. Unlike many other large parties in Europe its ideology is not primarily based on economic systems. Rather the ideas of humanity, education, the spirit of the land, peasant-like freedom, decentralisation, "the issue of poor people", environmentalism and progressivism play a key role in Centrist politician speeches and writings.^[9] From the very beginning of its presence, the party has supported the idea of decentralisation.^[9]

Despite belonging to the Liberal International, the Centre Party does not play quite the same role in Finnish politics as do liberal parties in other countries, because the party evolved from agrarian roots.

The party has a more conservative wing, and prominent conservatives within the party, such as Paavo Väyrynen, have criticised overt economic and social liberalism.^[22] In addition, in 2010 the party congress voted to oppose same-sex marriage.^[23] When the Finnish Parliament voted on same-sex marriage in 2014, 30 of the 36 Centre MPs voted against it.^[24]

The party is also divided on the issue of deepening European integration,^[25] and contains a notable eurosceptic faction based on its more rural interests. The party expressly rejects a federal Europe. The party was originally opposed to Finland's membership in the Euro currency, but later stated that it would not seek to withdraw from the Economic and Monetary Union once Finland had entered.

In Finland, there is no large party that supports liberalism per se. Instead, liberalism is found in most major parties including the Centre Party, which supports decentralisation, free will, free and fair trade, and small enterprise. The Centre Party characteristically supports decentralisation, particularly decreasing the central power, increasing the power of municipalities and populating the country evenly. During the party's premierships 2003—2011 these policies were also manifested as transferrals of certain government agencies from the capital to smaller cities in the regions.

Throughout the period of Finland's independence the Centre Party has been the party most often represented in the government. The country's longest-serving president, Urho Kekkonen, was a member of the party, as were two other presidents.

Today, only a small portion of the votes given to the party come from farmers and the Centre Party draws support from a wide range of professions. However, even today rural Finland and small towns form the strongest base of support for the party, although it has strived for a breakthrough in the major southern cities as well. In the 2011 parliamentary election the party received only 4.5 per cent of votes cast in the capital Helsinki, compared to 33.4 per cent in the largely rural electoral district of Oulu.^[26]

Organisation

Party structure

In the organisation of the Centre Party, local associations dominate the election of party leaders, the selection of local candidates and drafting of policy. The Headquarters in Apollonkatu, Helsinki leads financing and organisation of elections.

The party has 2.500 local associations,^[27] which have 160.000 individual members.^[28] The local associations elect their representatives to the Party Congress, which elects the party leadership and decide on policy. The local associations form also 21 regional organisations, which have also their representatives in the Party Congress.

The Party Congress is the highest decision making body of the party. It elects the Chairman, three Deputy Chairmen, the Secretary General and the Party Council.

The Party Council with 135 members is the main decision making body between the Party Congresses. The Party Council elects the Party Government (excluding the leaders elected by the Party Congress) and the Working Committee. The Party Council, the Party Government and the Working Committee must have at least 40% representation of both sexes.

The Finnish Centre Youth, Finnish Centre Students and Finnish Centre Women have their own local and regional organisations, which also name their representatives to the Party Congress.

People

Chairman

• Juha Sipilä, (Born in Veteli 25 April 1961)

Deputy Chairmen

• Juha Rehula (Born in Hollola 3 June 1963), Member of Parliament
• Katri Kulmuni, (Born in Tornio 4 September 1987), Member of Parliament
• Antti Kurvinen, (Born in Ylihärmä 14 July 1986), Member of Parliament

Party Secretary

• Jouni Ovaska, (Born in Hämeenkyrö 9 September 1986)

Chairman of the Parliamentary Group

• Antti Kaikkonen, (Born in Turku 14 February 1974)

Deputy Chairmen of the Parliamentary Group

• Anne Kalmari, (Born in Kivijärvi 20 April 1968)
• Tuomo Puumala, (Born in Kaustinen 3 April 1982)

Other famous Centrist politicians today

International organisations

The party is a member of the Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and subscribes to the liberal manifestos of these organisations. Its members in the European Parliament are members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group. The Centre Party has been a full member of the Liberal International since 1988, having first joined as an observer member in 1983.^[29]

Prominent party leaders

List of party presidents

President	Term begin	Term end
Otto Karhi	1906	1909
Kyösti Kallio	1909	1917
Filip Saalasti	1917	1918
Santeri Alkio	1918	1919
Pekka Heikkinen	1919	1940
Viljami Kalliokoski	1940	1945
Vieno Johannes Sukselainen	1945	1964
Johannes Virolainen	1964	1980
Paavo Väyrynen	1980	1990
Esko Aho (first time)	1990	2000
Anneli Jäätteenmäki (first time)	2000	2001
Esko Aho (second time)	2001	2002
Anneli Jäätteenmäki (second time)	2002	2003
Matti Vanhanen	2003	2010
Mari Kiviniemi	2010	2012
Juha Sipilä	2012-	present day

Elections

Below is a chart of the results of the Centre Party in Finnish parliamentary elections.

Parliamentary elections Year MPs Votes 1907 9 / 200 51,242 5.75% 1908 10 / 200 51,756 6.39% 1909 13 / 200 56,943 6.73% 1910 17 / 200 60,157 7.60% 1911 16 / 200 62,885 7.84% 1913 18 / 200 56,977 7.87% 1916 19 / 200 71,608 9.00% 1917 26 / 200 122,900 12.38% 1919 42 / 200 189,297 19.70% 1922 45 / 200 175,401 20.27% 1924 44 / 200 177,982 20.25% 1927 52 / 200 205,313 22.56% 1929 60 / 200 248,762 26.15% 1930 59 / 200 308,280 27.28% 1933 53 / 200 249,758 22.54% 1936 53 / 200 262,917 22.41% 1939 56 / 200 296,529 22.86% 1945 49 / 200 362,662 21.35%

Year MPs Votes 1948 56 / 200 455,635 24.24% 1951 51 / 200 421,613 23.26% 1954 53 / 200 483,958 24.10% 1958 48 / 200 448,364 23.06% 1962 53 / 200 528,409 22.95% 1966 49 / 200 503,047 21.23% 1970 36 / 200 434,150 17.12% 1972 35 / 200 423,039 16.41% 1975 39 / 200 484,772 17.63% 1979 36 / 200 500,478 17.29% 1983 38 / 200 525,207 17.63% 1987 40 / 200 507,460 17.62% 1991 55 / 200 676,717 24.83% 1995 44 / 200 552,003 19.85% 1999 48 / 200 600,592 22.40% 2003 55 / 200 689,391 24.69% 2007 51 / 200 640,428 23.11% 2011 35 / 200 463,160 15.82% 2015 49 / 200 626,218 21.10%

Municipal elections Year Councillors Votes 1950 121,804 8.09% 1953 282,331 16.04% 1956 366,380 21.91% 1960 401,346 20.44% 1964 413,561 19.28% 1968 3 533 428,841 18.93% 1972 3 297 449,908 17.99% 1976 3 936 494,423 18.43% 1980 3 889 513,362 18.72% 1984 4 052 545,034 20.21% 1988 4 227 554,924 21.10% 1992 3 998 511,954 19.22% 1996 4 459 518,305 21.81% 2000 4 625 528,319 23.75% 2004 4 425 543,885 22.77% 2008 3 518 512,220 20.09% 2012 3 077 465,167 18.66%

European parliament Year MEPs Votes 1996 4 / 16 548,041 24.36% 1999 4 / 16 264,640 21.30% 2004 4 / 14 387,217 23.37% 2009 3 / 13 316,798 19.03% 2014 3 / 13 339,398 19.7%

Presidential elections indirect elections Year Candidate Electors Votes 1925 Lauri Kristian Relander 69 123,932 19.9% 1931 Kyösti Kallio 69 167,574 20.0% 1937 Kyösti Kallio 56 184,668 16.6% 1950 Urho Kekkonen 62 309,060 19.6% 1956 Urho Kekkonen 88 510,783 26.9% 1962 Urho Kekkonen 111 698,199 31.7% 1968 Urho Kekkonen 65 421,197 20.66% 1978 Urho Kekkonen 64 475,372 19.4% 1982 Johannes Virolainen 53 534,515 16.8% 1988 Paavo Väyrynen 68 647,769 21.70%

direct elections Year Candidate Votes 1988 Paavo Väyrynen 1    636,375 1 20.57 % 1994 Paavo Väyrynen 1    623,415 1   19.5 % 2000 Esko Aho 1 1,051,159 2 1,540,803 1   34.4 % 2   48.4 % 2006 Matti Vanhanen 1    561,990 1   18.6 % 2012 Paavo Väyrynen 1    536,731 1   17.5 %

See also

• Nordic agrarian parties
• Liberalism and centrism in Finland

Sources

• Vares, Vesa; Mikko Uola; Mikko Majander (2006). Demokratian haasteet 1907–1919, article in the book Kansanvalta koetuksella. Helsinki: Edita. ISBN 951-37-4543-0. 
• Vares, Vesa (1998). Kuninkaan tekijät: Suomalainen monarkia 1917–1919. Myytti ja todellisuus. Porvoo-Helsinki-Juva: WSOY. ISBN 951-0-23228-9. 

References

External links

• Official website (Finnish)
• Centre Party: Swedish-speaking section (Swedish)
• Website in English (English)
• Youth organisations official website (Finnish)