1954 Finnish parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 7 and 8 March 1954.[1]

Background

In June 1953, Prime Minister Urho Kekkonen had presented a simultaneous deflationary program, which tried to lower wages, prices and public expenditures to the level of the export industry's profitability. Among other proposals, the deflationary program aimed to remove the Finnish parents' family allowances for their first children, reduce income, sales and corporate taxes, cut the interest rate, and reduce wages by 10%. Finance Minister Juho Niukkanen (Agrarian League) presented an austerity budget to Parliament in September 1953, which proposed cutting all major government expenditures by 15%. The Social Democratic Party and People's Party of Finland opposed the austerity budget. Since Parliament refused to approve the government's planned changes to the state-subsidized apartment buildings' and other residences' construction, Kekkonen resigned in November 1953. Despite President Juho Kusti Paasikivi's urgings (in his opinion, Kekkonen was a valuable Prime Minister because he managed Finnish-Soviet relations skilfully), the Social Democrats refused to allow Kekkonen to continue as Prime Minister.

Sakari Tuomioja, a member of the Liberal League who had earlier served in the government, for example as Foreign Minister, and had been Governor of the Bank of Finland since 1945, formed a centre-right caretaker government. Tuomioja's government wanted to keep rationing wages, but wanted to dismantle other types of rationing. Coffee was released from rationing in March 1954. Finnish exports grew, and the government's expenditures increased by over 20% compared to Kekkonen's fourth government's proposal. Various right-wingers and Social Democrats preferred early elections to boost their number of deputies, and to prevent Kekkonen from becoming Prime Minister again. Given President Paasikivi's advanced age (83 years) and close relations with Kekkonen, the latter could well succeed Paasikivi as President, should Paasikivi suddenly die or resign.

The Social Democrats went to the election campaign trail with the lofty slogan: "Kekkonen Kampinkadulle" (lit. Kekkonen Back to Camp Street (Kampinkatu), his home of 25 years before his premiership & which was subsequently renamed after him). To their surprise and to that of right-wingers, the Agrarians gained two seats, while the Social Democrats, National Coalition Party and Swedish People's Party suffered a net loss of four seats. Ralf Törngren of the Swedish People's Party formed a centre-left government in May 1954, with Kekkonen as Foreign Minister. The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions favoured the lowering of living costs, through subsidies, to the start level of the economic stabilization period. The Social Democrats and Agrarians agreed and, dissatisfied with Prime Minister Törngren's economic compromises, caused Törngren to resign and Kekkonen to become Prime Minister for the fifth time in October 1954.[2][3]

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Social Democratic Party	527,094	26.2	54	+1
	Agrarian League	483,958	24.1	53	+2
	Finnish People's Democratic League	433,251	21.6	43	0
	National Coalition Party	257,025	12.8	24	–4
	People's Party of Finland	158,323	7.9	13	+3
	Swedish People's Party	135,768	6.8	12	–2
	Liberal League	6,810	0.3	0	0
	Åland Coalition	4,651	0.2	1	0
	Small Farmers Party	1,040	0.1	0	0
	Others	337	0.0	0	–
Invalid/blank votes		10,785	–	–	–
Total		2,019,042	100	200	0
Registered voters/turnout		2,526,969	79.9	–	–
Source: Tilastokeskus 2004[4]

Popular vote SDP   26.25% ML   24.10% SKDL   21.57% KOK   12.80% KP   7.88% RKP   6.76% Others   0.64%

Parliament seats SDP   27.00% ML   26.50% SKDL   21.50% KOK   12.00% KP   6.50% RKP   6.00% Others   0.50%

References

1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p606 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
2. Seppo Zetterberg et al., eds., A Small Giant of the Finnish History / Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen, Helsinki: WSOY, 2003, pages 786, 811, 817-821
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-11-29. Retrieved 2014-01-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. 595. Eduskuntavaalit 1927–2003 (Tilastokeskus 2004)