Parliamentary elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

were held in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

on 1 and 2 July 1948. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p606

Background

The political atmosphere during the July 1948 Finnish parliamentary elections was heated. Many Finns across the party lines believed that the communists and the

Finnish People's Democratic League Finnish People's Democratic League (, SKDL; , DFFF) was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Party. It was founded in 1944 as the anti-communist laws in Finland were repealed due ...

had pursued their goal of making Finland a solidly left-wing country too vigorously. They had even held the prime ministership since March 1946, with

Mauno Pekkala Mauno Pekkala (27 January 1890 – 30 June 1952) was a Finnish statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister from 1946 to 1948. Mauno Pekkala was the brother of Eino Pekkala. Pekkala was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finla ...

serving in that position. They had organized many mass meetings, demanded the dismissal of "reactionary" (especially right-wing) civil servants and claimed that the Finnish government had to adopt even a friendlier relationship with the Soviet Union. They had vigorously supported the imprisonment of eight former top politicians, including former president

Risto Ryti Risto Heikki Ryti (; 3 February 1889 – 25 October 1956) was a Finnish people, Finnish politician who served as the fifth president of Finland from 1940 to 1944. Ryti started his career as a politician in the field of economics and as a politica ...

, for "war guilt" (making decisions that resulted in the Continuation War of 1941 to 1944 between Finland, the Soviet Union and Germany). In the spring of 1948, there were even unproven rumours of an imminent coup attempt by the Finnish communists. Some Finnish war veterans condemned the communist interior minister Yrjö Leino for deporting to the Soviet Union Ingrian Finns, East Karelians and Estonians who had fought in the Finnish army during the Continuation War. The controversy over the treatment of these "prisoners of Leino", several of whom were Finnish citizens, forced Leino to resign in May 1948. The Social Democratic Party's election slogan was: "Enough already: price hikes, lying promises, opinion terror, forced democracy." The Agrarian League's election slogan was: "On these leans the Agrarian League" under the Bible and the Finnish law. The

National Coalition Party The National Coalition Party (NCP; , Kok; , Saml) is a liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in Finland, political party in Finland. It is the current governing political party of Finland. Founded in 1918, the ...

declared simply: "Be free." These traditional democratic parties gained a total of 16 members of parliament in the election, while the communists lost 11, compared to the 1945 election. After the election, the Finnish politics began to stabilize. The United States appreciated Finland's desire to remain a Western democracy, despite its close relationship with the Soviet Union, symbolized by the Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance Treaty (FCMA), which was signed in April 1948. After the election, the Social Democrats formed a minority government under prime minister

Karl-August Fagerholm Karl-August Fagerholm (31 December 1901, in Siuntio – 22 May 1984, in Helsinki) was a Finnish politician. Fagerholm served as Speaker of Parliament and three times Prime Minister of Finland (1948–50, 1956–57, and 1958–59). Fa ...

. They did not want to form a government with the Agrarian League, claimed the late veteran agrarian-centrist politician Johannes Virolainen, because they feared that they would lose votes to the communists in the next election. The Agrarian League quietly supported Fagerholm's government.Johannes Virolainen, The Last Electoral Term / Viimeinen vaalikausi, Helsinki: Otava, 1991

Results

Summary

By electoral district

References

{{Finnish elections Parliamentary elections in Finland

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...