The Christian Democrats ( fi, Suomen Kristillisdemokraatit, sv, Kristdemokraterna i Finland; KD) is a Christian-democratic

political party in Finland This article is a list of political parties in Finland, which includes Finland's national-level political parties and excludes local and provincial parties (such as the parties of Åland). A party is defined as a political association whose exis ...

. It was founded in May 1958, chiefly by the Christian faction of the National Coalition Party. It entered parliament in 1970. The party leader since 28 August 2015 has been Sari Essayah. The Christian Democrats have five seats in the Finnish Parliament. It is positioned on the centre-right on the political spectrum. The party name was for a long time abbreviated to SKL (standing for , , ''Finnish Christian League''), until 2001, when the party changed its name to the current ''Christian Democrats'' and its abbreviation to ''KD''.The KD was a minor party in the centre-right coalition government led by Prime Minister Esko Aho between 1991 and 1994 and later a part of Rainbow coalition led by

Jyrki Katainen Jyrki Tapani Katainen (born 14 October 1971) is a Finnish politician who served as the European Commission's Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness from 2014 until 2019. Katainen was previously Prime Minister of Finland fr ...

and Alexander Stubb between 2011 and 2015. The party is a member of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

(EPP). ''KD-lehti'' ( en, CD News) is the party's weekly newspaper.

History

When the Christian Democrats was founded in 1958, as the name ''Finnish Christian League'', the communist-dominated Finnish People's Democratic League was polling about 25 per cent and became the largest parliamentary grouping. That, together with lax alcohol laws, salacious publications and assistance from the Norwegian KrF, sparked the Christian initiative.Freston P., (2004) Protestant Political Parties Aldershot (Ashgate), pp.42 The 1960s were and 'incubation period', but there was a growing conviction of the need for parliamentary seats in the wake of liberal legislation. At the 'earthquake election' of 1970, after four years of Popular front government, the CD had a solitary Raino Westerholm elected. Westerholm was a party chair between 1973 and 1982. Westerholm polled a creditable 8.8 per cent at the 1978 presidential election. The modest 'Westerholm effect' was a backlash for long-serving Urho Kekkonen, who was backed by all of the larger parties.Arter, D. (2009) Scandinavian Politics Today Manchester (Manchester University Press), pp.126-128 Party was a junior coalition partner in government from 1991 to 1995, when it occupied the development aid portfolio. It was a soft Eurospectic party and stressed the importance of the principle of subsidiarity in European affairs. After being renamed The Christian Democrats in 2001 it moved to a pro-European stance.

Bjarne Kallis Johan Bjarne Kallis (born 21 March 1945 in Kokkola) is the former chairman of the Christian Democratic Party (KD), previously known as the Finnish Christian Coalition (SKL), and a member of the Parliament of Finland. Kallis works as the principal ...

, the party chairman between 1995 and 2004, was instrumental in the party's change of name and concern to attract a wider electorate, being able to draw votes from the Swedish People's Party and Finnish-speaking Conservative and Centre voters. At the 2003 general election, The Christian Democrats polled their highest vote of 5.3 %.Arter, D. (2006) Democracy in Scandinavia (Manchester University Press), pp.187 English-speaking members of the party founded their own chapter in Helsinki in 2004. Its monthly meetings attract immigrants to participate in societal matters and the issues that are particularly important to them. In 2005, a Russian-speaking chapter was also founded in Helsinki.

Ideology

The party describes itself as following the tenets of

Christian democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

. It emphasizes "respect of human dignity, the importance of family and close communities, defending the weak, encouraging resourcefulness and individual and collective responsibility, not just for themselves but also for their neighbours and the rest of creation". Membership is open to everyone who agrees with these values and aims. The party also claims to be committed to environmental protection. It is also orientated towards socially conservative policies.

Politicians

Finnish Christian League parliamentary election campaign 1972

Parliamentary election 1972 campaign event of Finnish Christian League at 1971.

List of party chairs

Olavi Päivänsalo Olavi is a Finnish masculine given name from Olav/Olaf name. Notable people with the name include: *Olavi Ahonen (1923–2000), Finnish film actor *Olavi Alakulppi (1915–1990), Finnish cross country skier who competed in the 1930s *Olavi Hänn ...

(1958–1964) * Ahti Tele (1964–1967) * Eino Sares (1967–1970) * Olavi Majlander (1970–1973) * Raino Westerholm (1973–1982) * Esko Almgren (1982–1989) *

Toimi Kankaanniemi Toimi Olavi Kankaanniemi (born 26 February 1950) is a Finland, Finnish politician, born in Sastamala, Tyrvää. Kankaanniemi was the Chairman of the Finnish Christian Democrats (Finland), Christian Democrats from 1989 to 1995. In 1994 Finnish pre ...

(1989–1995) *

(1995–2004) *

Päivi Räsänen Päivi Maria Räsänen, née Kuvaja (born 19 December 1959, in Sonkajärvi, Finland), is a Finnish politician. The chairwoman of the Christian Democrats from 2004 to 2015, she was the Minister of the Interior of Finland between 2011 and 2015. A ...

(2004–2015) * Sari Essayah (2015–)

First vice chairs

* Raino Westerholm (1971–1973) * Ilmari Helimäki (1973–1982) * Olavi Ronkainen (1982–1985) *

Marjatta Laakko Marjatta (IPA: arjatːa is a Finnish female given name. Its nameday is celebrated on the 15th of August. It reached its peak of popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. As of 2013 there were more than 123,000 women registered with this name in Finland. I ...

(1985–?) * Juhani Peltonen (-1991) *

Leea Hiltunen ''Leea'' ( Tagalog: ''Talyantan'') is a genus of plants that are distributed throughout Northern and eastern Australia, New Guinea, South and Southeast Asia and parts of Africa. The APG IV system places ''Leea'' in the subfamily Leeoideae (Vitace ...

(1991–2003) * Marja-Leena Kemppainen (2003–2005) *

Peter Östman Peter Johan Östman (born 16 December 1961) is a member of the Parliament of Finland and is the Chairman of the Christian Democratic Parliamentary Group. Early life Ostman was born in 1961 in Larsmo, Ostrobothnia. His family comes from Larsmo ...

(2005–2009) *

Sari Palm Sari Palm is a Finnish politician and a member of the Parliament of Finland between 2007 and 2015 representing Kymi Kymi may refer to: *Kymi, Greece, a town in Euboea, Greece *Kymi, Finland, a former municipality in Finland *Kymi (constituency), a ...

(2009–2011) * Teuvo V. Riikonen (2011–2013) *

Sauli Ahvenjärvi Sauli Ahvenjärvi is a Finnish politician, representing the Christian Democrats. He was a member of the Parliament of Finland The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In ...

(2013–2015) * Tommy Björkskog (2015–2017) * Tiina Tuomela (2017–2019) *

(2019–)

Party secretary

* 1958–1959: S. N. Venho * 1959–1965: Paavo Luostarinen * 1965–1978: Eino Pinomaa * 1979–1982: Esko Almgren * 1982–1996: Jouko Jääskeläinen * 1997–2002:

Milla Kalliomaa ''Milla'', the Mexican star, is a genus of monocotyledonous plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Brodiaeoideae. They are native mostly to Mexico, with one species extending into Guatemala, Honduras, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico. ''Mil ...

* 2003:

Eija-Riitta Korhola Eija-Riitta Korhola (née Nieminen; born 15 June 1959 in Lahti) is a Finnish politician and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP). She served three terms, first with the Finnish Christian Democrats between 1999–2003 and then with the ...

* 2003–2007:

Annika Kokko Annika is a feminine given name. It is the Swedish pet form of Anna, similar to Anneke in the Netherlands. It is also common in Germany, Finland and Estonia, gaining popularity after 1969 from the character of that name in the ''Pippi Longstockin ...

* 2007–2009: Sari Essayah * 2009–2011:

* 2011–2021:

Asmo Maanselkä Action selection is a way of characterizing the most basic problem of intelligent systems: what to do next. In artificial intelligence and computational cognitive science, "the action selection problem" is typically associated with intelligent age ...

* 2022–:

Elsi Juupaluoma The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, gene mapping, mapping and DNA sequencing, sequencing all of the genes of the ...

Current members of parliament

* Sari Essayah (Savo-Karjala constituency) * Antero Laukkanen (Uusimaa constituency) *

(Häme constituency) *

Sari Tanus Sari Marja Hannele Tanus (born February 22, 1964, in Kuopio, Finland), is a Finnish doctor and politician, representing the Christian Democrats in the Parliament of Finland since 2015. She was elected to the Parliament from the Pirkanmaa constitue ...

(Pirkanmaa constituency) *

(Vaasa constituency)

European Parliament

Sari Essayah was the most recent MEP of the party; she was elected to the European Parliament in the 2009 election but failed to win re-election in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Election results

Parliamentary elections

ImageSize = width:600 height:240 PlotArea = width:500 height:160 left:50 bottom:60 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:15 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:0 PlotData= bar:% color:blue width:22 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S bar:1958 from:start till:0.17 text:0,2 bar:1962 bar:1966 from:start till:0.45 text:0,5 bar:1970 from:start till:1.40 text:1,4 bar:1972 from:start till:2.53 text:2,5 bar:1975 from:start till:3.29 text:3,3 bar:1979 from:start till:4.77 text:4,8 bar:1983 from:start till:3.03 text:3,0 bar:1987 from:start till:2.58 text:2,6 bar:1991 from:start till:3.05 text:3,1 bar:1995 from:start till:2.96 text:3,0 bar:1999 from:start till:4.17 text:4,2 bar:2003 from:start till:5.34 text:5,3 bar:2007 from:start till:4.86 text:4,9 bar:2011 from:start till:4.03 text:4,0 bar:2015 from:start till:3.54 text:3,5 bar:2019 from:start till:3.90 text:3,9

Municipal elections

European parliamentary elections

Presidential elections

Indirect elections

Direct elections

Literature

* *

Affiliated organisations

Christian Democratic Youth of Finland Christian Democratic Youth of Finland ( fi, Suomen Kristillisdemokraattiset Nuoret, KDN / sv, Finlands Kristdemokratiska Unga) is a political youth organization in Finland. It is the youth league of Christian Democrats. It currently has more th ...

fi, Suomen Kristillisdemokraattiset Nuoret sv, Finlands Kristdemokratiska Unga * Christian Democratic Women of Finland fi, Suomen Kristillisdemokraattiset Naiset sv, Finlands Kristdemokratiska Kvinnor * KD News fi, KD-Lehti * Kompassi Think Tank fi, Ajatushautomo Kompassi

References

External links

* {{Authority control Christian democratic parties in Europe Protestant political parties Conservative parties in Finland 1958 establishments in Finland Registered political parties in Finland Political parties established in 1958 Social conservative parties Member parties of the European People's Party