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Swedish People's Party of Finland Svenska folkpartiet i Finland (Swedish) Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue (Finnish)
Abbreviation	Swedish: SFP Finnish: RKP, R
Chairperson	Anders Adlercreutz
Secretary	Fredrik Guseff [fi]
General Secretary	Hanna Seppä
Parliamentary group leader	Otto Andersson (Member of the Finnish Parliament) [fi]
Deputy chairs	Ramieza Mahdi [fi] Silja Borgarsdóttir Sandelin [fi] Sandra Bergqvist
Chair of the party council	Eva Biaudet
Founded	1906
Headquarters	Simonkatu 8A, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
Newspaper	Medborgarbladet [fi]
Student wing	Liberala Studerande LSK [sv]
Youth wing	Svensk Ungdom
Women's wing	Svenska Kvinnoförbundet
Membership (2016)	30,000
Ideology	Swedish-speaking minority interests Liberalism
Political position	Centre to centre-right
European affiliation	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
European Parliament group	Renew Europe
International affiliation	Liberal International
Nordic affiliation	Centre Group
Colours	Blue (official)   Red   Black   Light yellow
Eduskunta	10 / 200
European Parliament	1 / 15
Municipalities	463 / 8,859
County seats	76 / 1,379
Website
www.sfp.fi
Politics of Finland Political parties Elections

The Swedish People's Party of Finland (SPP; Swedish: Svenska folkpartiet i Finland, SFP; Finnish: Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue, RKP) is a Finnish political party founded in 1906. Its primary aim is to represent the interests of the minority Swedish-speaking population of Finland. The party is currently a participant in the Government of Petteri Orpo, holding the posts of Minister of Education, Minister for European Affairs, and Minister of Youth, Sport and Physical Activity.

An ethnic catch-all party, its main election issue since its inception has been the Swedish-speaking Finns' right to their own language while maintaining the official position of the Swedish language in Finland. Ideologically, it is liberal, social-liberal, centrist, and pro-European. The party has been in a governmental position from 1979 to 2015 and again since 2019, with one or two seats in government, and has collaborated with both centre-right and centre-left parties in parliament.

The fact that both the Finnish centre-right and centre-left have needed the support from the party has meant that they have been able to affect politics of Finland on a larger scale than the party's actual size would suggest. The position of the Swedish language as one of two official languages in Finland and the Swedish-speaking minority's right to Swedish culture are two of the results of the party's influence in Finnish politics. The party is a member of the Liberal International, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and Renew Europe. The youth organisation of the party is called Svensk Ungdom (Swedish Youth).

History and electorate

The Swedish Party (1870–1906), a parliamentary elite party based on members in the Diet of Finland, is the historical predecessor of the Swedish People's Party of Finland. It was a part of the Svecoman movement and its main policy was opposition of the Fennoman movement.

Unlike Fennomans, who were largely liberal on other matters than the language question, the Svecoman were conservative. Axel Lille and Axel Olof Freudenthal are often considered as some of the main "founding fathers" of the movement. Most members of the Liberal Party joined the Swedish Party in the 1880s, after the Liberals ceased to exist as a distinct party. The Swedish People's Party of Finland was founded in the 1906 party congress of the Swedish Party, making it one of the oldest parties in Finland. The first leader of Swedish People's Party was Axel Lille.

The current leader of the party is Anders Adlercreutz. In the Parliament of Finland the representative for Åland is usually included in SPP's parliamentary group, regardless of his/her party affiliation; parties on Åland are separate from those on the mainland, but their common interest in Swedish-language issues gives them much in common with the Swedish People's Party group as regards national politics.

The party receives its main electoral support from the Swedish speaking minority, which makes up about 5.5% of Finland's population. During its history, the party has suffered slow but steady decline in adherence, following the decline of the percentage of Swedish-speaking population. In 1907, the party received 12% of national votes; after World War II, it received 7% of the vote; and in the 2011 parliamentary election, it received 4.3% of the votes (and nine MPs). In municipal elections, it holds large majorities in municipalities with a Swedish-speaking majority.

Despite its position as one of the minor political parties in the Finnish parliament, it has frequently been one of the partners forming the governing coalition cabinets. Since 1956, the year when Urho Kekkonen was elected President, the party has been nearly continuously in the government. It has been part of all coalitions with the significant exception of Paasio's first cabinet (1966–68), which included only socialists (Social Democratic Party (SDP), the split SDP faction Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders and Finnish People's Democratic League) and the Centre Party.

Short periods of rule by single-party minority governments, Miettunen cabinet (1961–62, Centre) and Paasio's second government (1972, SDP) and of nonpartisan caretaker governments have also interrupted its stay in the government. For this reason, the SPP is often criticized for being a single-issue party that allegedly accepts nearly all other policies as long as its own vital interest, the status of the Swedish language is maintained.

However, although Vanhanen's first cabinet made Swedish a voluntary subject in the upper secondary schools' matriculation exam, the SPP remained in the government. In contrast, the Greens left the previous government after a new nuclear power plant was decided in 2002.

The SPP's long continuous participation in the Finnish cabinets came to an end in following the 2015 parliamentary election when it was left out of the Sipilä Cabinet. In June 2019, the SPP returned to government with two ministerial positions in the Rinne Cabinet, the Minister of Justice and the Minister for Nordic Cooperation and Equality.

Recently, the SPP has emphasized the liberal part of its programme, attempting to woo voters outside its traditional Swedish-speaking electorate. In 2010, the party added the word Suomen ("of Finland") to its official Finnish name.

Election results

Parliament of Finland

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/-	Government
1907	112,267	12.60	24 / 200		Opposition
1908	103,146	12.74	24 / 200		Opposition
1909	104,191	12.31	25 / 200	1	Opposition
1910	107,121	13.53	26 / 200	1	Opposition
1911	106,810	13.31	26 / 200		Opposition
1913	94,672	13.07	25 / 200	1	Opposition
1916	93,555	11.76	21 / 200	4	Opposition
1917	108,190	10.90	21 / 200		Coalition
1919	116,582	12.13	22 / 200	1	Coalition (1919)
					Opposition (1919-1920)
					Coalition (1920-1921)
					Opposition (1921-1922)
1922	107,414	12.41	25 / 200	3	Opposition
1924	105,733	12.03	23 / 200	2	Coalition (1924-1925)
					Opposition (1925-1927)
1927	111,005	12.20	24 / 200	1	Opposition
1929	108,886	11.45	23 / 200	1	Opposition
1930	113,318	10.03	20 / 200	3	Coalition
1933	115,433	10.42	21 / 200	1	Coalition
1936	131,440	11.20	21 / 200		Opposition (1936-1937)
					Coalition (1937-1939)
1939	124,720	9.61	18 / 200	3	Coalition
1945	134,106	7.90	14 / 200	4	Coalition
1948	137,981	7.34	13 / 200	1	Opposition (1948-1950)
					Coalition (1950-1951)
1951	130,524	7.20	14 / 200	1	Coalition
1954	135,768	6.76	12 / 200	2	Coalition (1954)
					Opposition (1954-1956)
					Coalition (1956-1958)
1958	126,365	6.50	13 / 200	1	Coalition (1958-1961)
					Opposition (1961-1962)
1962	140,689	6.11	13 / 200		Coalition
1966	134,832	5.69	11 / 200	2	Coalition
1970	135,465	5.34	11 / 200		Coalition
1972	130,407	5.06	9 / 200	2	Opposition (1972)
					Coalition (1972-1975)
1975	128,211	4.66	9 / 200		Coalition
1979	122,418	4.23	9 / 200		Coalition
1983	137,423	4.61	10 / 200	1	Coalition
1987	152,597	5.30	12 / 200	2	Coalition
1991	149,476	5.48	11 / 200	1	Coalition
1995	142,874	5.14	11 / 200		Coalition
1999	137,330	5.12	11 / 200		Coalition
2003	128,824	4.61	8 / 200	3	Coalition
2007	126,520	4.57	9 / 200	1	Coalition
2011	125,785	4.28	9 / 200		Coalition
2015	144,802	4.88	9 / 200		Opposition
2019	139,640	4.53	9 / 200		Coalition
2023	133,318	4.31	9 / 200		Coalition

European Parliament

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	EP Group
1996	129,425	5.75 (#6)	1 / 16	New	ELDR
1999	84,153	6.77 (#6)	1 / 16	0
2004	94,421	5.70 (#6)	1 / 14	0	ALDE
2009	101,453	6.09 (#6)	1 / 13	0
2014	116,747	6.76 (#7)	1 / 13	0
2019	116,033	6.34 (#7)	1 / 13	0	RE
2024	112,245	6.14 (#7)	1 / 15	0

Presidential elections

Political positions

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Swedish People's Party of Finland" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Swedish language is one of the two official languages of Finland. The SPP has as its main purpose the protection and strengthening of the position of the Swedish language in Finland.

The Swedish People's Party of Finland has the most eclectic profile of any of the political parties in Finland. Its members and supporters chiefly include:

• Fishermen and farmers from the Swedish-speaking coastal areas.
• Small-town dwellers from the adjacent Swedish-speaking and bilingual towns.
• A significant part of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland.
• Left-leaning middle class people.
• Liberals in general, who currently have no representation of their own in the Parliament of Finland, and who as such benefit from the predominantly liberal values of the SPP.

Although the SPP represents a small minority of Finland, having Swedish as a mother tongue is not much of a political handicap in and of itself. Several times, Swedish speaking presidential candidates have gathered considerable support, although not necessarily as candidates for the Swedish People's Party of Finland:

• In 1944, the Swedish-Finnish Carl G. E. Mannerheim a hero of Finnish independence became Finland's 6th president.
• In 1956, the Swedish-speaking Social Democrat Karl-August Fagerholm got one elector's vote less than needed to be elected, and the Agrarian Urho Kekkonen was elected.
• In 1994, the SPP's candidate Elisabeth Rehn was defeated by the Social Democrat candidate Martti Ahtisaari, also with a narrow margin (53.9% to 46.1%).
• In 2024, the NCP's candidate Alexander Stubb was elected as the 13th president of Finland.

The SPP supported Finland's accession bid to NATO.

List of party leaders

• Axel Lille (1906–1917)
• Eric von Rettig (1917–1934)
• Ernst von Born (1934–1945)
• Ralf Törngren (1945–1955)
• Ernst von Born (1955–1956)
• Lars Erik Taxell (1956–1966)
• Jan-Magnus Jansson (1966–1973)
• Kristian Gestrin (1973–1974)
• Carl Olof Tallgren (1974–1977)
• Pär Stenbäck (1977–1985)
• Christoffer Taxell (1985–1990)
• Ole Norrback (1990–1998)
• Jan-Erik Enestam (1998–2006)
• Stefan Wallin (2006–2012)
• Carl Haglund (2012–2016)
• Anna-Maja Henriksson (2016–2024)
• Anders Adlercreutz (2024–present)

See also

• Liberal parties by country
• Liberal democracy
• Liberalism and centrism in Finland
• Finland's language strife
• Swedish Assembly of Finland
• Svecoman movement
• Fennoman movement
• Rolf Witting
• Axel Olof Freudenthal

Notes

1. Including the Åland Coalition representative, who sits with the SFP group

References

1. http://www.sfp.fi/sv/content/verksamhet SFP website|access date 2016-08-04
2. ^ "Markus Blomquist ny ordförande för SFP i Åbo". Åbo Underrättelser (in Swedish). 30 November 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
3. Arter, David (1999). Scandinavian Politics Today. Manchester University Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-7190-5133-3.
4. Bondeson, Ulla (2003). Nordic Moral Climates: Value Continuities and Discontinuities in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Transaction Publishers. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-7658-0203-3.
5. Hans van den Brandhof (2004). "The Republic of Finland". In Lucas Prakke; Constantijn Kortmann (eds.). Constitutional Law of 15 EU Member States. Kluwer. p. 183. ISBN 978-90-13-01255-2.
6. K. Beyme (1996). Transition to Democracy in Eastern Europe. Springer. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-230-37433-1.
7. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Finland". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
8. Bergqvist, Christina (1999). Equal Democracies?: Gender and Politics in the Nordic Countries. Nordic Council of Ministers. p. 319. ISBN 978-82-00-12799-4.
9. Juvonen, Tuula (2016-05-01). "Out and Elected: Political Careers of Openly Gay and Lesbian Politicians in Germany and Finland". Redescriptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History and Feminist Theory. 19 (1): 49. doi:10.7227/R.19.1.4. ISSN 2308-0914.
10. Bale, Tim (2021). Riding the populist wave: Europe's mainstream right in crisis. Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-009-00686-6. OCLC 1256593260.
11. Vít Hloušek; Lubomír Kopeček (2010). Origin, Ideology and Transformation of Political Parties: East-Central and Western Europe Compared. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 204. ISBN 978-0-7546-7840-3.
12. Lane, Jan-Erik; Ersson, Svante (2008). "Political Institutions in Europe". In Josep M. Colomer (ed.). The Nordic Countries: Compromise and Corporatism in the Welfare State. Routledge. p. 260. ISBN 978-1-134-07354-2.
13. "Finland MPs vote to keep Swedish in schools". The Local Sweden. 2015-03-06. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
14. RKP, SFP (2019). "SFP:s Riksdag ValsProgram 2019". SFP. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
15. Biografiskt lexikon för Finland: Federley, Alex (in Swedish). Retreieved 10 November 2016.
16. "Swedish People's Party elects Adlercreutz as new chair after Wickström drops out of race". yle. yle.fi. 16 June 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
17. Finland in Figures. "Tilastokeskus - Population". Stat.fi. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
18. "Perusporvarihallitus on Juha Sipilän valinta". 8 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
19. "Government of Prime Minister Rinne appointed".
20. "Presidential election 2018 / Results / Whole country". Ministry of Justice. 2018-04-04. Retrieved 2018-06-11.
21. "SFP ställer inte upp kandidat i presidentvalet – men stöder inte heller Stubb" (in Swedish). 2023-09-07. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
22. "RKP on nyt virallisesti Nato-puolue". Yle. 12 June 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2016.

External links

• Website of the Swedish People's Party of Finland (in Swedish)
• Website in English

• Swedish People's Party of Finland
• Liberal parties in Finland
• 1906 establishments in the Russian Empire
• Political parties established in 1906
• Parties represented in the European Parliament
• Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party member parties
• Registered political parties in Finland
• Political parties of minorities in Finland