Finnish parliamentary election, 1975

Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 21 and 22 September 1975.^[1]

Background

Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa's (Social Democrat) government survived until June 1975. It resigned because of internal disagreements over the ways to combat Finland's recession, which had largely been caused by the 1973 Oil Crisis, as well as the government's increased spending and taxes. The Social Democrats and Centrists also disagreed on the regional policy, that is, the extent to which the national government should re-distribute power and tax revenues to the cities, towns and administrative provinces. President Kekkonen had gradually become dissatisfied with the performance of Prime Minister Sorsa, Finance Minister Virolainen and Foreign Minister Karjalainen: either they were not competent, diligent or courageous enough, or they spent too much time in partisan disputes, or - in Virolainen's case, especially - their foreign policy ability or understanding was not good enough. Although Helsinki, the Finnish capital, was to host the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) at the end of July and at the start of August 1975, Kekkonen did not worry about the possibly negative effect on Finland's international image of having a caretaker government. He appointed it, and chose as Prime Minister Keijo Liinamaa (Social Democrat), who was the state labour disputes mediator. The opposition parties campaigned with varied slogans: the Communists claimed to be loyal supporters of Kekkonen's foreign policy towards the Soviet Union and to be even more faithful defenders of the working class than the Social Democrats, the National Coalitioners promised voters lower taxes and more security, the Ruralists bitterly condemned Kekkonen's allegedly authoritarian presidency, and his "servile" foreign policy towards the Soviet Union, the right-wing Constitutionalists accused Kekkonen of violating the Constitution's spirit by forcing the Parliament to re-elect him as President through an exceptional law in 1973, and the Christian League kept opposing abortion, pornography, the sale of beer in grocery stores, and the public mocking of Christian values. In the end, several parties won one or more seats, because fifteen seats were up for grabs compared to the 1972 election: the Ruralists had then received eighteen seats, now they and their splinter party, the Unity Party, only got a total of three seats. Government formation in the midst of a quickly deepening recession and after an inconclusive election proved very painstaking. Veteran Centrist politician Martti Miettunen finally succeeded, with the help of Kekkonen's strongly-worded televised speech, in forming a centre-left majority "emergency" government in November 1975. It lasted until September 1976, when the Social Democrats and Communists left it. Miettunen then formed a centrist minority government.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Results

References