1979 Finnish parliamentary election

18–19 March 1979
All 200 seats in the Parliament of Finland 101 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   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 2 12 3 Popular vote 691,512 626,764 500,478 Percentage 23.89% 21.65% 17.29% Swing 0.97pp 3.28pp 0.34pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   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 5 Popular vote 518,045 138,244 122,418 Percentage 17.90% 4.78% 4.23% Swing 0.99pp 1.49pp 0.43pp   Seventh party Eighth party   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 5 5 Popular vote 132,457 106,560 Percentage 4.58% 3.68% Swing 0.99pp 0.67pp
Prime Minister before election Kalevi Sorsa SDP Prime Minister after election Kalevi Sorsa SDP

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Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 18 and 19 March 1979.^[1]

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

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Social Democratic Party	691,512	23.89	52	−2
	National Coalition Party	626,764	21.65	47	+12
	Finnish People's Democratic League	518,045	17.90	35	−5
	Centre Party	500,478	17.29	36	−3
	Finnish Christian League	138,244	4.78	9	0
	Finnish Rural Party	132,457	4.58	7	+5
	Swedish People's Party	122,418	4.23	9	0
	Liberal People's Party	106,560	3.68	4	−5
	Constitutional People's Party	34,958	1.21	0	−1
	Finnish People's Unity Party	9,316	0.32	0	−1
	Åland Coalition	9,286	0.32	1	0
	Socialist Workers Party	2,955	0.10	0	0
	Party of Finnish Entrepreneurs	1,233	0.04	0	0
	Others	220	0.01	0	–
Total		2,894,446	100.00	200	0
Valid votes		2,894,446	99.60
Invalid/blank votes		11,620	0.40
Total votes		2,906,066	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		3,858,553	75.31
Source: Tilastokeskus 2004[2]

Aftermath

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.^[4][5][6][7]

References