1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election

Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 18 and 19 March 1979.

1979 Finnish parliamentary election
1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election
← 1975 18–19 March 1979 1983 →

All 200 seats in the Parliament of Finland
101 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
  1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election 1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election 1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election
Leader Kalevi Sorsa Harri Holkeri Johannes Virolainen
Party SDP National Coalition Centre
Last election 24.86%, 54 seats 18.37%, 35 seats 17.63%, 39 seats
Seats won 52 47 36
Seat change Decrease 2 Increase 12 Decrease 3
Popular vote 691,512 626,764 500,478
Percentage 23.89% 21.65% 17.29%
Swing Decrease 0.97pp Increase 3.28pp Decrease 0.34pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election 1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election 1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election
Leader Ele Alenius Raino Westerholm Pär Stenbäck
Party SKDL Christian League RKP
Last election 18.89%, 40 seats 3.29%, 9 seats 4.66%, 9 seats
Seats won 35 9 9
Seat change Decrease 5 Steady Steady
Popular vote 518,045 138,244 122,418
Percentage 17.90% 4.78% 4.23%
Swing Decrease 0.99pp Increase 1.49pp Decrease 0.43pp

  Seventh party Eighth party
  1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election 1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election
Leader Veikko Vennamo Jaakko Itälä
Party Rural Party Liberal People's
Last election 3.59%, 2 seats 4.35%, 9 seats
Seats won 7 4
Seat change Increase 5 Decrease 5
Popular vote 132,457 106,560
Percentage 4.58% 3.68%
Swing Increase 0.99pp Decrease 0.67pp

Prime Minister before election

Kalevi Sorsa
SDP

Prime Minister after election

Mauno Koivisto
SDP

Background

Prime Minister Martti Miettunen's centrist minority government (Centre Party, Swedish People's Party and Liberal Party) resigned in May 1977, and Social Democrat Kalevi Sorsa returned to office as Prime Minister after having served two years earlier. He formed a centre-left majority government, which stimulated the economy by deficit spending, tax cuts to businesses and some public works projects. The economy started to grow again in 1978, after a two-year recession; unemployment peaked at 8.5% (about 200,000 unemployed) in 1978 and inflation remained high.

Results

1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election 
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Social Democratic Party691,51223.8952−2
National Coalition Party626,76421.6547+12
Finnish People's Democratic League518,04517.9035−5
Centre Party500,47817.2936−3
Finnish Christian League138,2444.7890
Finnish Rural Party132,4574.587+5
Swedish People's Party122,4184.2390
Liberal People's Party106,5603.684−5
Constitutional People's Party34,9581.210−1
Finnish People's Unity Party9,3160.320−1
Åland Coalition9,2860.3210
Socialist Workers Party2,9550.1000
Party of Finnish Entrepreneurs1,2330.0400
Others2200.010
Total2,894,446100.002000
Valid votes2,894,44699.60
Invalid/blank votes11,6200.40
Total votes2,906,066100.00
Registered voters/turnout3,858,55375.31
Source: Tilastokeskus 2004

By electoral district

Electoral district Total
seats
Seats won
SDP Kok Kesk SKDL SKL RKP SMP LKP ÅS
Åland 1 1
Central Finland 10 3 2 2 2 1
Häme 15 5 5 2 2 1
Helsinki 20 6 7 3 1 2 1
Kymi 15 6 3 3 1 1 1
Lapland 8 1 1 3 3
North Karelia 7 2 1 2 1 1
North Savo 11 2 2 4 2 1
Oulu 17 2 2 6 5 1 1
Pirkanmaa 13 4 4 1 3 1
Satakunta 13 3 3 2 3 1 1
South Savo 9 3 2 2 1 1
Uusima 26 8 7 2 4 1 3 1
Vaasa 18 3 3 5 2 1 3 1
Varsinais-Suomi 17 4 5 2 3 1 1 1
Total 200 52 47 36 35 9 9 7 4 1
Source: Statistics Finland

Aftermath

1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election 
1979 Election ads in Jyväskylä

The National Coalition Party had conducted a vigorous election campaign, demanding to be allowed to re-join the government after thirteen years in the opposition. They reaped the benefits of this campaign, and of the usual decrease of long-time governing parties' support, by picking up twelve seats and becoming the second-largest party. Their leader, Harri Holkeri, negotiated with the various parliamentary parties and concluded in April 1979 that no stable majority centre-right government could be formed, because the traditional bourgeois parties (the Centre Party, the National Coalition Party, the Swedish People's Party and the Liberal People's Party) considered the Finnish Christian League and Finnish Rural Party too ideologically extreme or old-fashioned to become reliable coalition partners. Holkeri declined to form a government, but Sorsa refused to continue as Prime Minister, due to the unpopularity that he had suffered amid the recession's lingering effects, his role in the establishment of the soon-to-be-bankrupt television cathode-ray tube factory Valco, his alleged belittling of family violence in a television interview, and his health problems (back pain).

Trade and Industry Minister Pirkko Työläjärvi refused President Urho Kekkonen's offer to become Prime Minister, because she claimed to be unprepared for such a large task. Kekkonen finally turned to Governor of the Bank of Finland Mauno Koivisto of the Social Democrats, who managed to form a centre-left majority government in late May 1979. The veteran Centrist politician Johannes Virolainen claimed in his memoirs that Kekkonen had appointed Koivisto as Prime Minister on the advice of former Prime Minister Miettunen, who claimed that the Finnish people would then see that Koivisto was not as intelligent as they had believed him to be. Kekkonen's official biographer, historian Juhani Suomi, disagreed, and claimed that Koivisto was Kekkonen's last remaining choice as Prime Minister – unless Kekkonen had intended to appoint a caretaker government. Koivisto's second – and final – government would last, despite frequent internal disagreements (their background was Kekkonen's imminent resignation as President and Koivisto's supreme popularity as his successor), until February 1982.

References

Tags:

1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election Background1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election Results1979 Finnish Parliamentary Election Aftermath1979 Finnish Parliamentary ElectionFinland

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