The Finnish Rural Party ( fi, Suomen maaseudun puolue, SMP; sv, Finlands landsbygdsparti, FLP) was an
agrarian and
populist 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 ...
. Starting as a breakaway faction of the
Agrarian League in 1959 as the Small Peasants' Party of Finland (Suomen Pientalonpoikien Puolue), the party was identified with the person of
Veikko Vennamo, a former Agrarian League Member of Parliament known for his opposition to the politics of President
Urho Kekkonen. Vennamo was chairman of the Finnish Rural Party between 1959 and 1979.
Support for the party was at its highest in the 1970s and 1980s, with its share of the votes reaching around 10 percent in some parliamentary elections.
[Anders Widfeldt: “A fourth phase of the extreme right? Nordic immigration-critical parties in a comparative context”. In: NORDEUROPAforum (2010:1/2), 7-31, http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/nordeuropaforum/2010-1/widfeldt-anders-7/XML/] In the 1990s, the party fell into financial trouble and was disbanded in 1995 (formally dissolved in 2003). The
Finns Party is the successor of the Finnish Rural Party.
History
The founder of the Finnish Rural Party was
Veikko Vennamo, leader of a faction in the Agrarian League (which was renamed
Centre Party in 1965). The relations of Veikko Vennamo and the Agrarian League's strong man
Urho Kekkonen were icy at best, and after Kekkonen was elected
president in 1956 Vennamo ran into serious disagreement with the party secretary, Arvo Korsimo, and was excluded from the parliamentary group. As a result, he immediately founded his own party in 1959.
Small Peasants' Party of Finland
Small Peasants' Party of Finland (Suomen Pientalonpoikien Puolue) was established in 1959. The founders of the party were members of the
Agrarian League. The leader of the party,
Veikko Vennamo, resided as the head of The Department of Housing and Land Reform with relations to the Carelian refugees after the
Continuation war. Vennamos skisma with his own party started when V. J. Sukselainen was elected the chairman of the Agrarian League.
Ideologically the split began in December, 1957, when Mr. Paavo Ojalehto from Northern Finland wrote a letter to the board of the members of the Agrarian League claiming, that the party secretary of the Agrarian League, Mr.
Arvo Korsimo
Arvo is a Finnish and Estonian given name for males and may refer to:
* Arvo Aalto (born 1932), Finnish politician
*Arvo Aaltonen (1892–1949), Finnish swimmer and Olympic medalist
*Arvo Aller (born 1973), Estonian politician
*Arvo Andresson (19 ...
did not meet the traditional moral values and did not appreciate chastity. The only member supporting Ojalehto's claim was
Veikko Vennamo. Vennamo was not allowed to take part in party the parliamentary group of the Agragian League in the parliament of Finland for a set period of time in 1958. Suomen Pientalonpoikien puolue was registered in the end of 1958. The only MP of the party was
Veikko Vennamo.
As
Johannes Virolainen
Johannes Virolainen (; 31 January 1914 – 11 December 2000) was a Finnish politician and who served as 30th Prime Minister of Finland.
Virolainen was born near Viipuri. After the Continuation War Virolainen moved to Lohja, but he remained one ...
succeeded Vieno Johannes Sukselainen as the chairman of the Agrarian League and had the name of the Agrarian League changed to Center Party (Keskustapuolue) in 1965 to meet better the needs of the sons and daughters of the farmers, who sought work in the cities, towns and boroughs as an alternative to the emigration to Sweden. The Small Peasants Party of Finland emphasized its position of defending the small peasants agriculture on its behalf.
In 1966 the party was renamed The Rural Party of Finland.
Finnish Rural Party
The Finnish Rural Party started as a protest movement, with support from the unemployed and small farmers.
The state-sponsored resettlement of veterans of World War II and evacuees from
ceded Karelia into independent small farms provided an independent power base to Vennamo, who was nationally well known, having served as director of the government resettlement agency since the end of the war. Vennamo was the honorary chairman of ''Asutusliitto'', the resettler society, and the society was involved in early campaigning. For the newly founded party, the main carrying force was Vennamo, who was charismatic, a good orator and a skilled negotiator.
The Rural Party won in its best showing with 18 seats in the Finnish parliament (which has 200 seats) in the 1970 election. The party got exactly the same amount of MPs in the next election in 1972, but was soon afterwards split in two as a majority of the parliamentary group, 12 members, resigned to establish a new party called the
Finnish People's Unity Party
Finnish People's Unity Party ( fi, Suomen Kansan Yhtenäisyyden Puolue, SKYP) was a split from the Rural Party of Finland. The party was formed as some of the members of the parliamentary group of the Rural Party of Finland wanted to support ...
(''Suomen Kansan Yhtenäisyyden Puolue'', SKYP). The party defectors accused Vennamo of autocratic leadership, while Vennamo accused the defectors of having been bought off with parliamentary party subsidies.
Veikko Vennamo's son,
Pekka Vennamo, became the party leader when his father retired in the 1980s. Vennamo Junior had neither the charisma nor the oratorical skills of his father. Other parties noticed this, and the Rural Party was taken into the cabinet in 1983. As a protest movement without a charismatic leader, burdened with ministers participating in unpopular coalitions, the party gradually lost political support.
Agricultural changes proved hard for small farmers, who sold their farms and moved to the cities. The
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
was seen as a more credible alternative for the unemployed. Finally, the declining support of the Rural Party forced Vennamo Junior to resign. Some of the party's former MPs joined the
Centre Party or retired with Vennamo. The party's last chairman and MP
Raimo Vistbacka
Raimo Viljam Vistbacka (born 19 October 1945 in Kauhava) is a Finnish politician and former member of the Finnish Parliament. Vistbacka has a master's degree in law (''varatuomari'') and he was the rural police chief (''nimismies'') in Alajärvi in ...
(the only one elected in 1995) was among the founders of the
Finns Party and became that party's first MP and chairman. The Rural Party's last party secretary
Timo Soini likewise became the Finns Party's first party secretary. With the Finns Party's electoral success in the
2011 election three former Rural Party MPs returned to the parliament as Finns Party MPs (Anssi Joutsenlahti, Lea Mäkipää, Pentti Kettunen).
It declared bankruptcy in 2003. Four supporters of the Rural Party of Finland, including
Timo Soini and
Raimo Vistbacka
Raimo Viljam Vistbacka (born 19 October 1945 in Kauhava) is a Finnish politician and former member of the Finnish Parliament. Vistbacka has a master's degree in law (''varatuomari'') and he was the rural police chief (''nimismies'') in Alajärvi in ...
, established the
Finns Party. The decision to establish this new party was made in a
sauna in the village of
Kalmari in the town of
Saarijärvi.
Ideology
The party held
anti-establishment or
anti-elite views, and criticized other politicians and parties, the government, "bureaucrats", international corporations, academics, cultural elites and corruption, while idealizing the ordinary people and small-time entrepreneurs of the countryside. Vennamo attacked, for example, other members of the parliament for over-claiming daily allowances. The party was also
anti-communist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
, and claimed established parties and the political leadership were too subservient to the
Soviet Union.
Vennamo was known for inventing and using pejorative terms, such as ''rötösherrat'' ("rotten gentlemen"), referring to allegedly corrupt politicians, and ''teoriaherrat'' ("theoretical gentlemen"), referring to academics allegedly lacking common sense. A slogan used by the party was ''Kyllä kansa tietää!'' ("Yes, the people know!").
The party professed to hold traditional
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
values, and, for example, opposed the
decriminalization of homosexuality
Criminalization of homosexuality is the classification of some or all sexual acts between men, and less frequently between women, as a criminal offense. Most of the time, such laws are unenforced with regard to consensual same-sex conduct, but ...
in 1971. Racism and xenophobia were not visibly part of the party's ideology.
Prominent Ruralists
Chairmen
*
Veikko Vennamo (1959–1979)
*
Pekka Vennamo (1979–1989)
*
Heikki Riihijärvi (1989–1991)
*
Tina Mäkelä (1991–1992)
*
Raimo Vistbacka
Raimo Viljam Vistbacka (born 19 October 1945 in Kauhava) is a Finnish politician and former member of the Finnish Parliament. Vistbacka has a master's degree in law (''varatuomari'') and he was the rural police chief (''nimismies'') in Alajärvi in ...
(1992–1995)
Party Secretaries
*
Köpi Luoma 1959–1960
*
Eino Poutiainen
Eino is a Finnish and Estonian masculine given name. The name is thought to be the Finnic form of the given name Henri. Both Finnish and Estonian languages belong to the Finno-Ugric language group through their being Uralic languages.Langu ...
1961–1970
*
Rainer Lemström 1970–1972 ja 1977–1979
*
Urpo Leppänen 1972–1977 ja 1979–1984
*
Aaro Niiranen
Aaro may refer to:
* Aaro (Shadow of the Eagle), a character portrayed by Mikko Leppilampi in the 2005 Finnish film ''Kaksipäisen kotkan varjossa''
* All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office of the US Department of Defense
People with the given nam ...
1984−1989
*
Tina Mäkelä 1989–1991
*
Reijo Rinne 1991−1992
*
Timo Soini 1992–1995
Deputy Chairpersons
*
Tauno Lääperi 1959–?
*
Aarne Jokela 1959–?
*
Rainer Lemström 1. 1976–1977
*
Aune Rutonen 2. 1976–1982
*
Eino Poutiainen
Eino is a Finnish and Estonian masculine given name. The name is thought to be the Finnic form of the given name Henri. Both Finnish and Estonian languages belong to the Finno-Ugric language group through their being Uralic languages.Langu ...
1977–1979
*
Niilo Salpakari 1980–1982
*
Leo Lassila
Leo or Léo may refer to:
Acronyms
* Law enforcement officer
* Law enforcement organisation
* ''Louisville Eccentric Observer'', a free weekly newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky
* Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity
Arts an ...
1982–1983
*
Helvi Koskinen Helvi Koskinen (née ''Vahvelainen''; 7 January 1930, in Vahviala 7 January 1990) was a Finnish politician. She was a member of the Parliament of Finland from 1983 to 1987, representing the Finnish Rural Party
The Finnish Rural Party ( fi, Suom ...
1982–1985
*
Kalle Palosaari 1. 1983–1988
*
Lea Mäkipää
Lea Kaarina Mäkipää (born 6 May 1947) is a Finnish former politician. Born in Kihniö, Mäkipää first served on the city's municipal council in 1981. She was first elected to the Finnish Parliament in 1983 as a member of the Finnish Rural Par ...
2. 1985–
*
Timo Soini 1. 1991–1992
[Raija Kaikkonen]
Tina Mäkelä Smp:n johtoon
Helsingin Sanomat 5.8.1991
*
Toivo Satomaa 2. 1991–
*
Marja-Leena Leppänen
*
Jouko Kröger
Chairpersons of the parliamentary group
*
J. Juhani Kortesalmi
''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...
(1979–1983, 1986–1987)
*
Veikko Vennamo (1983–1986)
*
Heikki Riihijärvi (1987)
*
Urpo Leppänen (1987–1988)
*
Sulo Aittoniemi
Sulo Aittoniemi (11 July 1936 – 16 June 2016) was a Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the nat ...
(1988–1994)
*
Lea Mäkipää
Lea Kaarina Mäkipää (born 6 May 1947) is a Finnish former politician. Born in Kihniö, Mäkipää first served on the city's municipal council in 1981. She was first elected to the Finnish Parliament in 1983 as a member of the Finnish Rural Par ...
(1994–1995)
*
Raimo Vistbacka
Raimo Viljam Vistbacka (born 19 October 1945 in Kauhava) is a Finnish politician and former member of the Finnish Parliament. Vistbacka has a master's degree in law (''varatuomari'') and he was the rural police chief (''nimismies'') in Alajärvi in ...
(1995)
Party Congresses
*Perustava kokous (founding congress) 9.2.1959
Pieksämäki
Pieksämäki () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia region, about north of Mikkeli, east of Jyväskylä and south of Kuopio. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The ...
*1. puoluekokous (party congress) 29.–30.1959
Kiuruvesi
*2. puoluekokous 3.–4.9.1960
Joensuu
*3. puoluekokous 4.–5.8.1961
Jyväskylä
*4. puoluekokous 16.–17.6.1962
Pieksämäki
Pieksämäki () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia region, about north of Mikkeli, east of Jyväskylä and south of Kuopio. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The ...
*5. puoluekokous 15.–16.6.1963
Seinäjoki
Seinäjoki (; "Wall River"; la, Wegelia, formerly sv, Östermyra) is a city located in South Ostrobothnia, Finland; east of Vaasa, north of Tampere, west of Jyväskylä and southwest of Oulu. Seinäjoki originated around the Östermyra bru ...
*6. puoluekokous 13.–14.6.1964
Kuopio
Kuopio (, ) is a Finnish city and municipality located in the region of Northern Savonia. It has a population of , which makes it the most populous municipality in Finland. Along with Joensuu, Kuopio is one of the major urban, economic, and cult ...
*7. puoluekokous 12.–13.6.1965
Oulu
Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...
*8. puoluekokous 13.–14.8.1966
Tampere
*ylimääräinen puoluekokous (extraordinary party congress) 29.10.1966
Helsinki
*9. puoluekokous 5.–6.8.1967
Helsinki
*10. puoluekokous 3.–4.8.1968
Kajaani
*11. puoluekokous 16.–17.8.1969
Pori
)
, website www.pori.fi
Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...
*12. puoluekokous ?.8.1970
Lahti
*13. puoluekokous 7.–8.8.1971
Oulu
Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...
*14. puoluekokous 12.8.1972
Kouvola
*15. puoluekokous 4.–5.8.1973
Mikkeli
*16. puoluekokous 3.–4.8.1974
Turku
*17. puoluekokous 1975
Jyväskylä
*18. puoluekokous 7.–8.8.1976
Joensuu
*19. puoluekokous 6.–7.8.1977
Oulu
Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...
*20. puoluekokous 5.–6.8.1978
Tampere
*21. puoluekokous 4.–5.8.1979
Pori
)
, website www.pori.fi
Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...
*22. puoluekokous 1.–3.8.1980
Lahti
*23. puoluekokous 7.–9.8.1981
Seinäjoki
Seinäjoki (; "Wall River"; la, Wegelia, formerly sv, Östermyra) is a city located in South Ostrobothnia, Finland; east of Vaasa, north of Tampere, west of Jyväskylä and southwest of Oulu. Seinäjoki originated around the Östermyra bru ...
*24. puoluekokous 6.–8.8.1982
Lappeenranta
*25. puoluekokous 5.–7.8.1983
Kuopio
Kuopio (, ) is a Finnish city and municipality located in the region of Northern Savonia. It has a population of , which makes it the most populous municipality in Finland. Along with Joensuu, Kuopio is one of the major urban, economic, and cult ...
*26. puoluekokous 3.–5.8.1984
Turku
*27. puoluekokous 2.–4.8.1985
Hyvinkää
*28. puoluekokous 8.–10.8.1986
Jyväskylä
*29. puoluekokous 7.–9.8.1987
Oulu
Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...
*30. puoluekokous 5.–7.8.1988
Lahti
*33. puoluekokous 4.–5.8.1991
Turku
*34. puoluekokous 1.8.1993
Mikkeli[Raija Kaikkonen]
Smp:lle uusi johtaja täpärässä äänestyksessä
Helsingin Sanomat 2.8.1992
*35. puoluekokous 3.–4.7.1994
Oulu
Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...
[Pekka Väisänen]
Urpo Leppäsen paluuyritys sähköisti Smp:n puoluekokouksen
Helsingin Sanomat 4.7.1993[Räisänen 1989]
Election results
Parliamentary elections
Local council (municipal) elections
Presidential elections
References
{{reflist
External links
Kyösti Pekonen, Pertti Hynynen and Mari Kalliala; accessed 26 March 2011.
1959 establishments in Finland
2003 disestablishments in Finland
Defunct agrarian political parties
Defunct political parties in Finland
History of the Finns Party
Nordic agrarian parties
Political parties disestablished in 2003
Political parties established in 1959
Political schisms