Finnish parliamentary election, 1954

Finland

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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 Back to Kamppi Street (to private life)!". 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

↑ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p606 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
↑ Seppo Zetterberg et al., eds., A Small Giant of the Finnish History / Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen, Helsinki: WSOY, 2003, pages 786, 811, 817-821
↑ http://www.suomenpankki.fi/fi/suomen_pankki/tehtavat/Pages/historia.aspx
↑ 595. Eduskuntavaalit 1927–2003 (Tilastokeskus 2004)

Elections and referendums in Finland

Parliamentary elections	1863 1867 1872 1877 1882 1885 1888 1891 1894 1900 1901 1905 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1913 1916 1917 1919 1922 1924 1927 1929 1930 1933 1936 1939 1945 1948 1951 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1972 1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019

Municipal elections	1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1928 1930 1933 1936 1945 1947 1950 1953 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2017

Presidential elections	1919 1925 1931 1937 1940 1943 1944 1946 1950 1956 1962 1968 1973 1978 1982 1988 1994 2000 2006 2012 2018

European elections	1996 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019

Referendums	1931 1994

Elections in brackets were not public elections

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