The Ã…land Centre () is an
agrarian-centrist political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
on the
Ã…land
Ã…land ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...
Islands. The party was founded by Karl-Anders Bergman in 1976.
The party has had four
premiers of Ã…land including:
Folke Woivalin (1979–1988),
Ragnar Erlandsson (1991–1995),
Roger Nordlund (1999–2007), and
Veronica Thörnroos (2019–2023).
The party is affiliated with the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
Mats Löfström, the current MP of Åland in the
Finnish parliament, represents Ã…land Centre.
History
The party was founded in 1976, when the
Swedish Centre Party was the largest non-socialist party in Sweden and hold the position of Prime Minister. Ã…land Centre then created its youth wing, 'Young Centre', in 1976, and a women's organization in 1988. In the
1979 Ã…landic legislative election, the party won 42.3% of the popular vote at its first election, becoming the largest party in the Lagting. Subsequently, the party had emerged as the largest party in Ã…land in majority of the Ã…landic elections.
The party lost its longstanding position as the largest party in
2015 Ã…landic legislative election. Ever since, it has been positioning itself as the opponent of centralization and municipal reforms, opposing the governmental proposals to reduce the number of municipalities from 16 to 4. The party maintains its dominance in the rural and archipelago municipalities of Ã…land.
Election results
Parliament of Ã…land (Lagting)
References
See also
External links
Official web site
Agrarian parties in Finland
Political parties in Ã…land
Liberal parties in Finland
Centrist parties in Finland
Conservative liberal parties
Political parties of minorities in Finland
Pro-European political parties in Finland
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