The ('''SDP''') is one of the most influential
Political Parties in
Finland , along with the
Centre Party and the
Coalition Party . Some even debate that the SDP's influence is so extensive, that other polical parties are powerless to challenge it, and merely cooperate, regardless of whether they hold more seats or not. SDP's
Social Democratic politics are generally more moderate than those of the other
Left -leaning party, the
Left Alliance .
Since the disastrous
Civil War In Finland of
1918 , SDP lost some of its support, currently gaining on average about one-quarter of the vote. The Social Democratic Party has about 59,000 members.
Eero Heinäluoma is the party's current chairman.
Tarja Halonen was SDP's winning candidate for
Presidency Of Finland in
2000 and
2006 .
SDP won 53 of the 200 seats in
Parliament in the
March 16 ,
2003 elections, which ended in a very close run with the
Center Party . As a result, SDP's former chairman
Paavo Lipponen became the
Speaker of Parliament, and the Centre-chairwoman
Anneli Jäätteenmäki became
Prime Minister for a coalition
Cabinet that also included the minor
Swedish People's Party beside the two major partners. SDP has eight portfolios in the Cabinet. After two months Jäätteenmäki was switched for
Matti Vanhanen due to a scandal.
Note that despite the fact that "sosiaali" in
Finnish has a long "a", the name of this party is spelt with a short "a", for historical reasons. The official name (as registered in Finland's party registry) is ''Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue / Finlands Socialdemokratiska Parti r.p.''
SDP was founded in 1899, but came to remain a chiefly extra-parliamentary movement until the
Universal Suffrage of
1906 , after which SDP's share of the
Vote s and seats approached 50%. Unfortunately, the reform of the
Parliament wasn't followed by
Parliamentarism , which is why the party and its voters found themselves virtually without influence, despite the high turnouts. Inevitably this led to a decreased confidence in
Democratic Methods and increased interest for the
Revolution . After the two revolutions in
Russia in
1917 , the polarization between poor and wealthy in Finland grew even wider, and the support for revolutionary means increased rapidly - actually much faster than the party organization and the
Trade Union s could follow. The
Civil War In Finland followed in
1918 , and resulted in virtually all party leaders on all levels becoming either killed, imprisoned or refugees abroad. In addition, the process leading to the Civil War, and the War itself, had stripped the party of its
Prestige ,
Legitimacy ,
Authority and respectability.
Refugee Social Democrats founded the
Communist Party Of Finland in
Moscow in
1918 . The split in the Finnish political left seems permanent.
It became the life's work of
Väinö Tanner to regain the reputation as a housetrained party, capable of serious matters - such as governing Finland. The result was a much more
Patriotic SDP, leaning a lot less to the
Left and relatively isolating it from its
Nordic sister-parties. The political back-lash after the
World Depression following the
Stock Market Crash Of 1929 would however postpone SDP's rehabilitation until after President
Svinhufvud 's term. With the exception of a brief period in
1926 , SDP was excluded from Cabinet participation beginning with
Oskari Tokoi 's Senate's unsuccessful claim of Finland's independence in
1917 until
Kyösti Kallio 's presidency
1937 . During
World War II however, the party played a central role in the government, symbolizing the national unity in response to the threat of the
USSR and the
Winter War in
1939 -
40 .
During the first few months of the
Continuation War (
1941 -
1944 ) the country, the parliament and the coalition Cabinet was divided on the question whether Finland's army should stop at the old border and thereby demonstratively refrain from any attempts of conquests. The country's dangerous position called however on national unity, and the party's leadership chose to refrain from any visible protests. This decision is often indicated as one of the main reasons behind the increased and cemented weakness of the Social Democrats, and the high percentage of Communist voters in the first elections after the Continuation War. The other main reason being the rebellion
1918 leading to the
Civil War In Finland .
After the
Continuation War the Social Democratic party finally seemed to have become equally respected as any other party, although it remained obvious that the
Soviet Union was more suspicious against SDP than against the "openly"
Bourgeois parties. In the presidential election of
1956 , SDP's candidate
Karl-August Fagerholm lost with only one single elector's vote to
Urho Kekkonen .
