Swedish People's Party of Finland

Swedish People's Party of Finland Svenska folkpartiet i Finland ( minority interests Liberalism
Political position	Centre
European affiliation	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliation	Liberal International
European Parliament group	Renew Europe
Nordic affiliation	Centre Group
Colours	Blue (official)   Red   Black   Light yellow
Eduskunta (including Åland Coalition)	10 / 200
European Parliament	1 / 14
Municipalities	463 / 8,859
County seats	57 / 1,379
Website
www.sfp.fi
Politics of Finland Political parties Elections

The Swedish People's Party of Finland (Swedish: Svenska folkpartiet i Finland, SFP; Finnish: Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue, RKP) is a Finnish political party founded in 1906. Its primary aim is to represent the interests of the minority Swedish-speaking population of Finland.^[3][4][5] The party is currently a participant in the Government of Petteri Orpo, holding the posts of Minister of Education, Minister for European Affairs, and Minister of Youth, Sport and Physical Activity.

An ethnic catch-all party,^[6] its main election issue since its inception has been the Swedish-speaking Finns' right to their own language while maintaining the position of the Swedish language in Finland.^[7] Ideologically, it is liberal,^[8][9][10] social-liberal,^[11] centrist,^[12][13] and pro-European.^[14] The party has been in a governmental position from 1979 to 2015 and again since 2019, with one or two seats in government, and has collaborated with both centre-right and centre-left parties in parliament.

The fact that both the Finnish centre-right and centre-left have needed the support from the party has meant that they have been able to affect

The Swedish Party (1870–1906), a parliamentary elite party based on members in the Diet of Finland, is the historical predecessor of the Swedish People's Party of Finland. It was a part of the Svecoman movement and its main policy was opposition of the Fennoman movement.

Unlike Fennomans, who were largely liberal on other matters than the language question, the Svecoman were conservative. Axel Lille and Axel Olof Freudenthal are often considered as some of the main "founding fathers" of the movement. Most members of the Liberal Party joined the Swedish Party in the 1880s, after the Liberals ceased to exist as a distinct party. The Swedish People's Party of Finland was founded in the 1906 party congress of the Swedish Party, making it one of the oldest parties in Finland. The first leader of Swedish People's Party was Axel Lille.

The current leader of the party is Anna-Maja Henriksson.^[16] In the Parliament of Finland the representative for Åland is usually included in SFP's parliamentary group, regardless of his/her party affiliation. This is because the political parties in Åland have no counterparts in Mainland Finland,^{[clarification needed]} but the SFP's interests have much in common with those of Åland as far as the Swedish language is concerned.

The party receives its main electoral support from the Swedish speaking minority, which makes up about 5.5% of Finland's population.^[17] During its history, the party has suffered slow but steady decline in adherence, following the decline of the percentage of Swedish-speaking population: in 1907 it got 12% of national votes, after World War II 7% and in the 2011 parliamentary election 4.3% (9 MPs). In municipal elections, it holds large majorities in municipalities with a Swedish-speaking majority.

Despite its position as one of the minor political parties in the Finnish parliament, it has frequently been one of the partners forming the governing coalition cabinets. Since 1956, the year when Urho Kekkonen was elected President, the party has been nearly continuously in the government. It has been part of all coalitions with the significant exception of Paasio's first cabinet (1966–68), which included only socialists (Social Democratic Party (SDP), the split SDP faction Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders and Finnish People's Democratic League) and the Centre Party.

Short periods of rule by single-party minority governments, Miettunen cabinet (1961–62, Centre) and Paasio's second government (1972, SDP) and of nonpartisan caretaker governments have also interrupted its stay in the government. For this reason, SFP is often criticized for being a single-issue party that allegedly accepts nearly all other policies as long as its own vital interest, the status of the Swedish language is maintained.

However, although Vanhanen's first cabinet made Swedish a voluntary subject in the upper secondary school's matriculation exam, SFP remained in the government. In contrast, the Greens left the previous government after a new nuclear power plant was decided in 2002.

The SFP's long continuous participation in the Finnish cabinets came to an end in following the 2015 parliamentary election when it was left out of the Sipilä Cabinet.^[18] In June 2019, the SFP returned to government with two ministerial positions in the Rinne Cabinet, the Minister of Justice and the Minister for Nordic Cooperation and Equality.^[19]

Recently, the SFP has emphasized the liberal part of its programme, attempting to woo voters outside its traditional Swedish-speaking electorate. In 2010, the party added the word Suomen ("of Finland") to its official Finnish name.

Election results

Parliament of Finland

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/-	Government
1907	112,267	12.60	24 / 200		Opposition
1908	103,146	12.74	24 / 200		Opposition
1909	104,191	12.31	25 / 200	1	Opposition
1910	107,121	13.53	26 / 200	1	Opposition
1911	106,810	13.31	26 / 200		Opposition
1913	94,672	13.07	25 / 200	1	Opposition
1916	93,555	11.76	21 / 200	4	Opposition
1917	108,190	10.90	21 / 200		Coalition
1919	116,582	12.13	22 / 200	1	Coalition (1919)
					Opposition (1919-1920)
					Coalition (1920-1921)
					Opposition (1921-1922)
1922	107,414	12.41	25 / 200	3	Opposition
1924	105,733	12.03	23 / 200	2	Coalition (1924-1925)
					Opposition (1925-1927)
1927	111,005	12.20	24 / 200	1	Opposition
1929	108,886	11.45	23 / 200	1	Opposition
1930	113,318	10.03	20 / 200	3	Coalition
1933	115,433	10.42	21 / 200	1	Coalition
1936	131,440	11.20	21 / 200		Opposition (1936-1937)
					Coalition (1937-1939)
1939	124,720	9.61	18 / 200	3	Coalition
1945	134,106	7.90	14 / 200	4	Coalition
1948	137,981	7.34	13 / 200	1	Opposition (1948-1950)
					Coalition (1950-1951)
1951	130,524	7.20	14 / 200	1	Coalition
1954	135,768	6.76	12 / 200	2	Coalition (1954)
					Opposition (1954-1956)
					Coalition (1956-1958)
1958	126,365	6.50	13 / 200	1	Coalition (1958-1961)
					Opposition (1961-1962)
1962	140,689	6.11	13 / 200		Coalition
1966	134,832	5.69	11 / 200	2	Coalition
1970	135,465	5.34	11 / 200		Coalition
1972	130,407	5.06	9 / 200	2	Opposition (1972)
					Coalition (1972-1975)
1975	128,211	4.66	9 / 200		Coalition
1979	122,418	4.23	9 / 200		Coalition
1983	137,423	4.61	10 / 200	1	Coalition
1987	152,597	5.30	12 / 200	2	Coalition
1991	149,476	5.48	11 / 200	1	Coalition
1995	142,874	5.14	11 / 200		Coalition
1999	137,330	5.12	11 / 200		Coalition
2003	128,824	4.61	8 / 200	3	Coalition
2007	126,520	4.57	9 / 200	1	Coalition
2011	125,785	4.28	9 / 200		Coalition
2015	144,802	4.88	9 / 200		Opposition
2019	139,640	4.53	9 / 200		Coalition
2023	133,318	4.31	9 / 200		Coalition

European Parliament

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/-
1996	129,425	5.75 (#6)	1 / 16
1999	84,153	6.77 (#6)	1 / 16
2004	94,421	5.70 (#6)	1 / 14
2009	101,453	6.09 (#6)	1 / 13
2014	116,747	6.76 (#7)	1 / 13
2019	116,033	6.34 (#7)	1 / 14

Presidential elections

Political positions

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The Swedish language is one of the two

The Swedish People's Party of Finland has the most eclectic profile of any of the political parties in Finland, its members and supporters including (chiefly):

• fishermen and farmers from the Swedish-speaking coastal areas.
• small-town dwellers from the adjacent Swedish-speaking and bi-lingual towns.
• a significant part of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland
• left-leaning
  middle-class
  people.
• liberals in general, who currently have no representation of their own in the
  Finnish parliament
  , and who as such benefit from the predominantly liberal values of the SFP.

Although the SFP represents a small minority of Finland, Swedish mother tongue per se is not much of a political handicap. Several times Swedish speaking presidential candidates have gathered considerable support, although not necessarily as candidates for the Swedish People's Party of Finland:

• In 1944, the Swedish-Finnish Carl G. E. Mannerheim a hero of Finnish independence became Finland's 6th president.
• In 1956, the Swedish-speaking
  Agrarian Urho Kekkonen
  was elected.
• In 1994, the SFP's candidate Elisabeth Rehn was defeated by the Social Democrat candidate Martti Ahtisaari, also with a narrow margin (53.9% to 46.1%).
• In 2024, the NCP's candidate Alexander Stubb was elected as the 13th president of Finland.

SFP supported Finnish NATO membership.^[22]

List of party leaders

• Axel Lille (1906–1917)
• Eric von Rettig (1917–1934)
• Ernst von Born (1934–1945)
• Ralf Törngren (1945–1955)
• Ernst von Born (1955–1956)
• Lars Erik Taxell (1956–1966)
• Jan-Magnus Jansson (1966–1973)
• Kristian Gestrin (1973–1974)
• Carl Olof Tallgren (1974–1977)
• Pär Stenbäck (1977–1985)
• Christoffer Taxell (1985–1990)
• Ole Norrback (1990–1998)
• Jan-Erik Enestam (1998–2006)
• Stefan Wallin (2006–2012)
• Carl Haglund (2012–2016)
• Anna-Maja Henriksson (2016–)

See also

• Contributions to liberal theory
• Liberalism worldwide
• List of liberal parties
• Liberal democracy
• Liberalism and centrism in Finland
• Finland's language strife
• Swedish Assembly of Finland
• Svecoman
• Rolf Witting
• Axel Olof Freudenthal
• Swedish People's League in the Baltic Sea Provinces

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Swedish People's Party.

• Website of the Swedish People's Party of Finland (in Swedish)
• Website in English