The (in in
Finland , along with the
Centre Party and the
National Coalition Party . It has been in the
Cabinet for long periods of time, the last time in 1995–2007, and has set many fundamental policies of the Finnish state. SDP's
Social Democratic politics are generally more moderate than those of the other
Left-leaning party, the
Left Alliance .
In the early 20th century SDP steadily commanded some 40% of the vote, but after the
Finnish Civil War of
1918 , communists split from the party. After that, SDP has commanded 20–29% of the total votes in all elections where communists or their fronts have been allowed to operate. Even after support for the communist electoral organization
SKDL dwindled in the 1980s, SDP's share of the popular vote has remained at 21–28 percent. 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 . Also the two preceding presidents,
Mauno Koivisto (term 1982–1994) and
Martti Ahtisaari (term 1994–2000), have been Social Democrats.
In the
2007 Parliamentary Election , SDP received 21.4 percent of the vote and lost 8 seats to bring its total down to 45. It was the first time the party finished in third place since 1962.
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.''
The party was founded as the Finnish Labour Party (in Finnish: ''Suomen Työväenpuolue'') in 1899. The name was changed to the present form in 1903. The party remained a chiefly extra-parliamentary movement until the
Universal Suffrage of
1906 , after which SDP's share of the
Vote s and seats at best reached 47% in 1916, when the party secured a majority in the parliament. It lost its majority in the 1917 election and in 1918 started a rebellion that escalated into the
Finnish Civil War . The war resulted in most party leaders on all levels being killed, imprisoned or seeking refuge abroad. In addition, the process leading to the Civil War and the war itself had stripped the party of its
Legitimacy and respectability in Finnish political life in the eyes of the right-wing majority. However, the political support for the party remained strong, and in the elections of 1919, the party, reorganised by
Väinö Tanner , gained some 80 of the 200 seats in the parliament. Some refugee Social Democrats founded the
Communist Party Of Finland in
Moscow in
1918 . Although the Communist Party was banned in Finland until
1945 , the support of the Finnish working class was in the following elections divided between the Social Democrats and organizations acting as communist fronts.
It became the life's work of
Väinö Tanner to regain the SDP's reputation as a party capable of dealing with serious matters, such as governing Finland. The result was a much more
Patriotic SDP, leaning a lot less to the left and relatively isolated from its
Nordic sister parties.
P.E. Svinhufvud's animosity however kept SDP out of the government during his presidency in 1931-1937. With the exception of a brief period in
1926 , 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, symbolizing national unity forged in response to the threat of the
USSR in the
Winter War in
1939 -
40 .
During the first few months of the
Continuation War (
1941 -
1944 ) the country, the parliament, and the Cabinet were 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 for 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 post-war division 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 work openly, and the main feature of Finnish political life during period 1944–1949 was fierce competition between the Social Democrats and the Communists for voters and control of the labor unions. At 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 the Finnish sovereignty and democracy in line with the Agrarian League and other bourgeois parties, finally leading to the expulsion of the Communists from the Cabinet in 1949. However, it remained obvious that the
Soviet Union was much more openly critical 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 . Fagerholm would act as a Prime Minister in
1956 -
1957 and
1958 -
1959 . The latter Cabinet was, however, forced to resign due to Soviet pressure, leading to a series of Agrarian League Cabinets. In 1958 a Soviet-friendly faction of the party resigned and formed the ''Alliance of Finnish Workers and Small Farmers'' around the former SDP chairman
Emil Skog due to the election of Väinö Tanner as party chairman. During the 1960s, this fraction dwindled, its members returning little by little to the SDP or joining the Communists.
Only in
1966 , SDP was able to satisfy the Soviet Union about its friendly attitude towards her and could return to the Cabinet. Since then, SDP has been represented in most Finnish Cabinets, often cooperating with the Centre Party (former Agrarian League), but sometimes also with the National Coalition Party. The most recent opposition period occurred in 1991–1995, when the Cabinet was formed by the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party. During this time, the party adopted its current pro-European line and contributed actively to the Finnish membership in the
European Union in 1995 in concert with the Cabinet.
SDP won 53 of the 200 seats in
Parliament in the
March 16 ,
2003 elections, which ended in a very close run with the Centre 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 had eight portfolios in the Cabinet. After two months Jäätteenmäki resigned due to
A Scandal and was replaced by
Matti Vanhanen .
In the
2007 Elections , the party lost eight seats (15% of seats) and finished with the third place. The chairman of the largest party, Matti Vanhanen, was named Prime minister, but he selected the second-most popular National Coalition party, the Greens and the Swedish People's Party to the cabinet, leaving Social Democrats into the opposition.
