Centre Party (Finland)

The Centre Party, ( , Kesk; , C) officially the Centre Party of Finland, is an agrarian-centrist political party in Finland.
Ideologically, the Centre Party is positioned in the centre of the political spectrum. It has been described as being liberal, social-liberal, liberal-conservative, and conservative-liberal. The party’s leader is Antti Kaikkonen, who was elected in June 2024 to succeed former minister Annika Saarikko. As of June 2023, the party has been a part of the parliamentary opposition.

Founded in 1906 as the Agrarian League (; ), the party represented rural communities and supported the decentralisation of political power from Helsinki. In the 1920s, the party emerged as the main rival to the SDP. Kyösti Kallio, the party's first prime minister, held the office for four times between 1922 and 1937. After World War II, the party settled as one of the four major political parties in Finland, alongside the SDP, the National Coalition Party and the Finnish People's Democratic League until the 1980s. Urho Kekkonen served as President of Finland from 1956 to 1982, by far the longest period of any president. The name Centre Party was adopted in 1965 and Centre of Finland in 1988. The Centre Party was the largest party in Parliament from 2003 to 2011, during which time Matti Vanhanen was prime minister for seven years. By 2011, the party was reduced in parliamentary representation from the largest party to the fourth largest, but it reclaimed its status as the largest party in 2015. In 2019, it suffered a considerable defeat, losing 18 of 49 seats.

As a Nordic agrarian party, the Centre Party's political influence is greatest in small and rural municipalities, where it often holds a majority of the seats in the municipal councils. Decentralisation is the policy that is most characteristic of the Centre Party which has been the ruling party in Finland a number of times since Finnish independence. Twelve of the Prime Ministers of Finland, three of the Presidents and a former European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs have been from the party. The Centre Party is the mother organisation of the Finnish Centre Students, the Finnish Centre Youth and the .

History

Founding

The party was founded in 1906 as a movement of citizens in the Finnish countryside. Before Finnish independence, political power in Finland was centralised in the capital and to the estates of the realm. The centralisation gave space for a new political movement. In 1906, two agrarian movements were founded. They merged in 1908 to become one political party known as the Agrarian League or ''Maalaisliitto''. An older, related movement was the temperance movement which had overlapping membership and gave future to Agrarian League activists experience in working in an organisation.

Santeri Alkio's ideology

Soon the ideas of humanity, education, the spirit of the land, peasant-like freedom, decentralisation, "the issue of poor people", progressivismMylly, Juhani. Maalaisliitto-Keskustan historia II. and later the "green wave" became the main political phrases used to describe the ideology of the party. Santeri Alkio was the most important ideological father of the party.

Defending the republic

At the dawn of Finnish independence, conservative social forces made an attempt to establish the Kingdom of Finland. The Agrarian League opposed monarchism fiercely, even though monarchists claimed that a new king from the German Empire and Hohenzollern would have safeguarded Finnish foreign relations. At this time, anti-anarchist peasants threatened the existence of the party.Vares 2006, p. 113.Vares 2006, p. 108

Because around forty Social Democratic members of the Parliament had escaped to Russia after the Finnish Civil War and about fifty others had been arrested, the Agrarian League members of the Parliament became the only republicans in Parliament in 1918. Nevertheless, the news about the problems of the German Empire from German liberals encouraged the fight of Agrarian League in the Parliament.Vares 2006, p. 122-126

The Agrarian League managed to maintain the republican voices in the Parliament until the fall of the German Empire which ruined the dreams of the monarchists.Vares 1998, p. 288-289 The relentless opposition to the monarchy was rewarded in the 1919 Finnish parliamentary election and the party became the biggest non-socialist party in Finland with 19.7% of the votes.

Post-war period

After the 1919 Finnish parliamentary election, the centrist and progressive forces, including the Agrarian League, were constant members in Finnish governments. Their moderate attitude in restless post-war Finland secured a steady growth in following elections. The party formed many centrist minority governments with National Progressive Party and got its first Prime Ministers ( Kyösti Kallio in 1922 and Juho Sunila in 1927).

Conciliation between the left and the right

For the Agrarian League, the centrist governments were just a transitional period toward an era which would integrate the red and white sides of the Civil War into one nation. Nevertheless, not everyone was happy with the conciliatory politics of centrist governments. The extreme right Lapua Movement grew bigger and bigger in the Agrarian League strongholds in the countryside. Many party members joined the new radical movement. The Lapua Movement organised assaults and kidnappings in Finland between 1929 and 1932. In 1930, after the kidnapping of progressive president Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, the Agrarian League broke off all its ties to the movement and got a new political enemy in the countryside, the Patriotic People's Movement (IKL) which was founded after the Lapua Movement was outlawed.

In the 1933 Finnish parliamentary election, the main campaign issues were the differing attitudes toward democracy and the rule of law between the Patriotic Electoral Alliance (the National Coalition Party and the Patriotic People's Movement) and the Legality Front (the Social Democrats, the Agrarian League, the Swedish People's Party and the Progressives). The Patriotic Electoral Alliance favoured continuing the search for suspected communists, the Communist Party and its affiliated organisations in the spirit of the Lapua Movement. The Legality Front did not want to spend any significant time on searching suspected communists but rather wanted to concentrate on keeping the far-right in check. The Legality Front won the elections, but the Agrarian League lost a part of its support.

Cooperation with the Social Democrats

Because of fierce opposition of the president Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, the Social Democrats remained outside the government and the Agrarian League was part of the centre-right governments until 1937. In the 1937 Finnish presidential election, the Agrarian League candidate Kyösti Kallio was elected president with the votes of centrist (Agrarian and Progressive) and social-democratic coalition which wanted to ensure that President Svinhufvud would not be re-elected. The new president allowed the first centre-left government to be formed in Finland and a new era had begun.

World War II

With the outbreak of the Winter War, a government of national unity was formed. President Kallio died shortly after the war.

Kekkonen, the centrist statesman

In 1956, Urho Kekkonen, the candidate of the Agrarian League, was elected President of Finland after serving as prime minister several times and remained president until 1982. Kekkonen continued the active neutrality policy of his predecessor Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the Paasikivi–Kekkonen line. Under it, Finland retained its independence while being able to trade with NATO members and those of the Warsaw Pact.

Pressure of populism

Veikko Vennamo, a vocal agrarian politician, ran into serious disagreement particularly with the then-Party Secretary of the Agrarian Party Arvo Korsimo, who was excluded from the parliamentary group. As a result, Vennamo immediately started building his own organisation in 1959 and founded a new party, the Finnish Rural Party (''Suomen maaseudun puolue'', SMP). Vennamo was a populist and became a critic of Kekkonen and political corruption within the old parties, particularly the Agrarian League. Although this party had some success, it was essentially tied to Veikko Vennamo's person. His son Pekka Vennamo was able to raise the party to new success and into government in 1983, but after this the Rural Party's support declined steadily and eventually the party went bankrupt in 1995. Immediately after this, the right-wing populist Finns Party (''Perussuomalaiset'') was founded by former members of SMP.

Transformation into the Centre Party

In 1965, the party changed its name to the Centre Party (''Keskustapuolue'') and in 1988 took its current Centre Party of Finland name (''Suomen Keskusta''). Despite urbanisation of Finland and a temporary nadir in support, the party managed to continue to attract voters.

The Liberal People's Party (LKP) became a member party of the Centre Party in 1982. The two separated again after the success of the Liberal People's Party in the 1985 Swedish general election.

Division over EU membership

The Centre Party was a key player in making the decision to apply for Finnish EU membership in 1992. As the leading governing party, its support for the application was crucial. The party itself, both leadership and supporters, was far from united on the issue. In the Parliament, 22 out of 55 Centre MPs voted against the application. In June 1994, the party congress decided to support EU membership (by 1607 votes to 834), but only after the Prime Minister and Party Chair Esko Aho threatened to resign if the party were to oppose the membership.

The centrist tradition of defending equal political and economic rights for peripheral areas was reflected in the internal resistance that opposed chairperson Aho's ambitions to lead Finland into the EU. The Centre Party was in opposition from 1995 to 2003 and opposed adopting the euro as Finland's currency. The party accepted the euro after regaining power in 2003.

2012 and beyond

The party congress in June 2012 elected the newcomer Juha Sipilä to replace Mari Kiviniemi as the party's chair. Sipilä defeated young deputy chairperson Tuomo Puumala and a well known veteran politician Paavo Väyrynen in the voting.

The previous chairperson Mari Kiviniemi succeeded Matti Vanhanen as Prime Minister in 2010, serving in the office for one year. At the time, she was the Centre Party’s third Prime Minister of Finland in succession. Anneli Jäätteenmäki preceded Vanhanen, she was also the first woman to be Prime Minister of Finland. She did not seek another term as party chair.

Olli Rehn, a member of the party, served in the European Commission for ten years between 2004 and 2014 and was the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs and the Euro from 2010 to 2014.

The Centre Party was the biggest loser of the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election, losing 16 seats and going from largest party to fourth place. Its support was lower than in any parliamentary election since 1917. It won the 2015 Finnish parliamentary election and formed a coalition with the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party.

In March 2016, the Centre Party announced that its candidate for the 2018 Finnish presidential election would be the former Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, the first declared presidential candidate in the race.

The Centre Party was again the biggest loser in the 2019 Finnish parliamentary election, losing 18 seats and going from largest party to fourth place. The party's support was even lower than in 2011. Due to the devastating defeat, Sipilä consequently announced that he would continue as the party chair only until the Centre Party's next convention in September 2019. The party congress in September 2019 elected the Minister of Economic Affairs Katri Kulmuni to replace Sipilä as the party's chair.

On 5 September 2020, during a party congress, Annika Saarikko was elected as the leader of the Centre Party to replace Katri Kulmuni.

During late 2022, The Centre Party was polling at its lowest record in support in polls with less than 10% support.

Ideology

The ideology of the party is unusual in the European context. Unlike many other large parties in Europe, its ideology is not primarily based on economic systems. Rather, the ideas of humanity, education, the spirit of the land, peasant-like freedom, decentralisation, "the issue of poor people", environmentalism and progressivism play a key role in Centre Party politician speeches and writings. From the very beginning of its presence, the party has supported the idea of decentralisation.

Despite belonging to the Liberal International, the Centre Party does not play quite the same role in Finnish politics as do liberal parties in other countries because the party evolved from agrarian roots.

The party has a more conservative wing, and prominent conservatives within the party such as Paavo Väyrynen have criticised overt economic and cultural liberalism. In addition, the 2010 party congress voted to oppose same-sex marriage. When the Finnish Parliament voted on same-sex marriage in 2014, 30 of the 36 Centre MPs voted against it.

The party is also divided on the issue of deepening European integration and contains a notable Eurosceptic faction based on its more rural interests. The party expressly rejects a federal Europe. The Centre Party was originally opposed to Finland's membership in the euro currency, but the party later stated that it would not seek to withdraw from the Economic and Monetary Union once Finland had entered.

In Finland, there is no large party that supports liberalism ''per se''. Instead, liberalism is found in most major parties including the Centre Party which supports decentralisation, free will, free and fair trade and small enterprise. The Centre Party characteristically supports decentralisation, particularly the decrease of central power, increase of the power of municipalities and the even population of the country. During the party's premierships between 2003 and 2011, these policies were also manifested as transferrals of certain government agencies from the capital to smaller cities in the regions.

Throughout the period of Finland's independence, the Centre Party has been the party most often represented in the government. The country's longest-serving President, Urho Kekkonen, was a member of the party as were two other Presidents.

Today, only a small portion of the votes given to the party come from farmers. As such, the Centre Party draws support from a wide range of professions. Rural Finland and small towns still form the strongest base of support for the party, although it has also strived for a breakthrough in the major southern cities. In the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election, the party received 4.5% of the votes cast in the capital, Helsinki, compared to the 33.4% in the largely rural electoral district of Oulu.

Organisation

Structure

In the organisation of the Centre Party, local associations dominate the election of party leaders, the selection of local candidates and drafting of policy. The headquarters in Apollonkatu, Helsinki leads financing and organisation of elections.

The party has 2,500 local associations which have 160,000 individual members. The local associations elect their representatives to the party congress which elects the party leadership and decide on policy. The local associations form also 21 regional organisations which have also their representatives in the party congress.

The party congress is the highest decision-making body of the party. It elects the chairperson, three deputy chairs, the secretary-general and the party council.

With 135 members, the party council is the main decision-making body between the party congresses. The party council elects the party government (excluding the leaders elected by the party congress) and the working committee. The party council, the party government and the Working Committee must have at least 40% representation of both sexes.

The Finnish Centre Students, the and the Finnish Centre Youth have their own local and regional organisations which also name their representatives to the party congress.

People

File:Antti Kaikkonen 2019.jpg, Antti Kaikkonen, Chairperson of the Centre Party of Finland
File:Hilkka Kemppi.jpg, Hilkka Kemppi, Deputy Chair of the Centre Party of Finland
File:Markus Lohi 2020.jpg, Markus Lohi, Deputy Chair of the Centre Party of Finland
File:Antti_Kurvinen_2021_(cropped).jpg, Antti Kurvinen, Chair of the Centre Party of Finland’s Parliamentary Group

Chairperson

* Antti Kaikkonen (born 1974)

Deputy chairs

* Tuomas Kettunen (born 1988)
* Markus Lohi (born 1972)
* Hilkka Kemppi (born 1988)

Secretary-general

* (born 1986)

Chair of the parliamentary group

* Antti Kurvinen (born 1986)

Deputy chairs of the parliamentary group

* Eeva Kalli (born 1981)
* Eerikki Viljanen (born 1975)

Other contemporary politicians

File:Olli_Rehn_by_Moritz_Kosinsky_2.jpg, Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs and the Euro, ex-Member of the European Parliament and Centre Party candidate in the 2024 Finnish presidential election
File:Hannu_Takkula_Remembrance_Forum.jpg, Hannu Takkula, former Member of the European Parliament
File:Simo Rundgren.jpg, Simo Rundgren, former Member of the Finnish Parliament
File:Janne Seurujärvi.jpg, Janne Seurujärvi, first Sámi in the Finnish Parliament
File:Laura Kolbe.jpg, Laura Kolbe, Member of the Helsinki City Council
File:Timo Kalli.jpg, Timo Kalli, former Member of the Finnish Parliament and ex-Speaker of the Finnish Parliament
File:Sirkka-Liisa Anttila.jpg, Sirkka-Liisa Anttila, former Member of the Finnish Parliament and ex- Minister of Agriculture and Forestry
File:Eskokiviranta1.JPG, Esko Kiviranta, former Member of the Finnish Parliament
File:Jäätteenmäki Anneli 2014-02-06 1.jpg, Anneli Jäätteenmäki, former Member of the European Parliament and ex-Prime Minister of Finland
File:Mikkoalatalo7.JPG, Mikko Alatalo, former Member of the Finnish Parliament
File:Lasse Hautala Seinäjoki (cropped).jpg, Lasse Hautala, former Member of the Finnish Parliament
File:Antti Kaikkonen in 2019.jpg, Antti Kaikkonen, former Member of the Finnish Parliament and ex-Minister of Defence
File:Seppokaariainenoffice.jpg, Seppo Kääriäinen, former Member of the Finnish Parliament, ex-Minister (many ministerial positions) and ex-Speaker of the Finnish Parliament
File:Mauri Pekkarinen.jpg, Mauri Pekkarinen, former Member of the Finnish Parliament and ex-Minister (many ministerial positions)
File:Paavo Väyrynen.jpg, Paavo Väyrynen, three-time Presidential Candidate, Honorary Chair of the Centre Party and ex-Minister (many ministerial positions)

International representation

The party is a member of the Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and subscribes to the liberal manifestos of these organisations. The Centre Party has been a full member of the Liberal International since 1988, having first joined as an observer member in 1983.

In the European Parliament, the Center Party sits in the Renew Europe group with two MEPs.

In the European Committee of the Regions, the Center Party sits in the Renew Europe CoR group with one full and two alternate members for the 2020-2025 mandate. Mirja Vehkapera is Coordinator in the COTER Commission.

Prominent leaders

File:Santeri Alkio2.jpg, Santeri Alkio, political ideologist
File:Lauri Kristian Relander, 1920s.jpg, Lauri Kristian Relander, President (1925–1931)
File:Ky%C3%B6sti_Kallio.png, Kyösti Kallio, four-time Prime Minister (1922–1937) and President (1937–1940)
File:Urho-Kekkonen-1977-c.jpg, Urho Kekkonen, two-time Prime Minister (1950–1956) and President (1956–1981)
File:JohannesVirolainen1975.jpg, Johannes Virolainen, Prime Minister (1964–1966)
File:Esko Aho 2010-05-28.jpg, Esko Aho, Prime Minister of Finland (1991–1995) and Executive Vice President of Nokia (2008–2013)
File:Jäätteenmäki Anneli 2014-02-06 1.jpg, Anneli Jäätteenmäki, first female Prime Minister (2003)
File:Matti Vanhanen 2017 06.jpg, Matti Vanhanen, two-time Prime Minister (2003–2010)
File:Mari Kiviniemi 2010-11-02 (2).jpg, Mari Kiviniemi, Prime Minister (2010–2011)
File:Tallinn Digital Summit. Handshake Juha Sipilä (2017).jpg, Juha Sipilä, Prime Minister (2015–March 2019)

List of presidents

Election results

Parliament of Finland

ImageSize = width:1100 height:240
PlotArea = width:1000 height:160 left:50 bottom:60
AlignBars = justify

DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:30
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:0
Colors =
id:SB value:rgb(0.01,0.58,0.29) legend:Sea_Battles
PlotData =
bar:% color:SB width:22 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S
bar:1907 from:start till:5.75 text:5.8
bar:1908 from:start till:6.39 text:6.4
bar:1909 from:start till:6.73 text:6.7
bar:1910 from:start till:7.60 text:7.6
bar:1911 from:start till:7.84 text:7.8
bar:1913 from:start till:7.87 text:7.9
bar:1916 from:start till:9.00 text:9.0
bar:1917 from:start till:12.38 text:12.4
bar:1919 from:start till:19.70 text:19.7
bar:1922 from:start till:20.27 text:20.3
bar:1924 from:start till:20.25 text:20.3
bar:1927 from:start till:22.56 text:22.6
bar:1929 from:start till:26.15 text:26.1
bar:1930 from:start till:27.28 text:27.3
bar:1933 from:start till:22.54 text:22.5
bar:1936 from:start till:22.41 text:22.4
bar:1939 from:start till:22.86 text:22.9
bar:1945 from:start till:21.35 text:21.4
bar:1948 from:start till:24.24 text:24.2
bar:1951 from:start till:23.26 text:23.3
bar:1954 from:start till:24.10 text:24.1
bar:1958 from:start till:23.06 text:23.1
bar:1962 from:start till:22.95 text:23.0
bar:1966 from:start till:21.23 text:21.2
bar:1970 from:start till:17.12 text:17.1
bar:1972 from:start till:16.41 text:16.4
bar:1975 from:start till:17.63 text:17.6
bar:1979 from:start till:17.29 text:17.3
bar:1983 from:start till:17.63 text:17.6
bar:1987 from:start till:17.62 text:17.6
bar:1991 from:start till:24.83 text:24.8
bar:1995 from:start till:19.85 text:19.9
bar:1999 from:start till:22.40 text:22.4
bar:2003 from:start till:24.69 text:24.7
bar:2007 from:start till:23.11 text:23.1
bar:2011 from:start till:15.82 text:15.8
bar:2015 from:start till:21.10 text:21.1
bar:2019 from:start till:13.80 text:13.8
bar:2023 from:start till:11.31 text:11.3

Municipal

European Parliament

Presidential elections

Indirect elections

Direct elections

See also

* Liberalism and centrism in Finland
* Nordic agrarian parties

Notes

Sources

*
*

References

External links

Official website


Centre Party: Swedish-speaking section


Website in English


Youth organisation’s official website

{{authority control

Centre Party (Finland)
1906 establishments in the Russian Empire
Political parties established in 1906
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party member parties
Parties represented in the European Parliament
Registered political parties in Finland
Centrist parties in Finland
Liberal parties in Finland
Agrarian parties in Finland