The (''Kansallinen Kokoomus'' or ''Samlingspartiet'') is a
Political party in
Finland . The party was founded on
December 9 ,
1918 , chiefly on the basis of the
Fennoman "Old-Finnish party". Today, the party is strongly
Europhile .
The Coalition Party is one of the three biggest parties in Finland, along with the
Social Democrats and the
Centre Party . Its vote share has been around 20% in the
Parliamentary elections in the 1990s and in 2003, and it currently holds 40 out of the 200 seats.
Although the party is clearly
Rightist , it harbours several different political currents, including social reformism (mainly in the
Turku area),
Conservatism (mainly in northern
Finland and
Lapland ), and
Liberalism (mainly in
Helsinki ). It is the one party most suspicious of the governmental bureaucracies and the political process interfering with business, championing the transfer of power above the parties, letting the entrepreneurial spirit flow freely. As regards traditional morality and established family institutions, it has had trouble reconciling staunch support for traditional family values and the liberal views of some of its members.
Up to the , the
League Of Nations ,
Democracy , multi party systems and
Parliamentarism . ''Kokoomus'' was the party having the closest ties with the emerging
Lapua Movement .
The party suffered division in the
1930s , in connection with the domestic Lapua Movement and the international
Fascism , when the
Patriotic People's Movement (IKL) was formed of members disapproving
Paasikivi's outspoken pro-
Democratic line. IKL was later banned. Paasikivi's democracy-line was taken up again by the party leader
Edwin Linkomies ,
Prime Minister 1943 -
1944 during the
Continuation War , who however lost the party-group's confidence and wasn't re-elected as chairman.
A minor division in the
1950s led to the formation of the
Christian Democrats .
The current party chairman is
Jyrki Katainen , who was elected as for the post in 2004.
Former party chairman is
Ville Itälä , who in the general elections in
2003 obtained the second highest count of individual votes (21.422) of all candidates. After his term in office as party chairman he was a candidate in the
European Parliament Election . He was also elected as an
Member Of The European Parliament .
