Parliamentary 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 2 and 3 January 1972. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p606

Background

Prime Minister

Ahti Karjalainen Ahti Kalle Samuli Karjalainen (10 February 1923 – 7 September 1990) was a Finland, Finnish economist and politician. He was a member of the Agrarian League (later known as Keskusta, Centre Party) and served two terms as Prime Minister of Finlan ...

's centre-left coalition government lost 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 It was founded in 1944 as the anti-communist laws in Finland were repealed due ...

in March 1971 as they opposed the removal of government subsidies from certain foods whose prices rose, and was forced to resign in October 1971, due to the disagreements between the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

and the Centre Party over the amount of

agricultural subsidies An agricultural subsidy (also called an agricultural incentive) is a government incentive paid to agribusinesses, agricultural organizations and farms to supplement their income, manage the supply of agricultural products, and influence the ...

. According to some historians, politicians and journalists, such as Allan Tiitta, Seppo Zetterberg, Johannes Virolainen, Veikko Vennamo and Pekka Hyvärinen, an underlying reason for these early parliamentary elections was President

Urho Kekkonen Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (; 3 September 1900 – 31 August 1986), often referred to by his initials UKK, was a Finnish politician who served as the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland from 1956 to 1982. He also served as Prime Minister ...

's desire to continue in office without regular presidential elections which had been scheduled for 1974. Re-election as President through exceptional means would require a five-sixths majority in Parliament and, according to the above analysts, Kekkonen hoped that such early elections would reduce the number of Finnish Rural Party MPs, and would thus make the exceptional electoral law's passage in Parliament easier. Kekkonen remembered bitterly the loud and constant criticism of himself and of his foreign policy that Rural Party leader

Veikko Vennamo Veikko Emil Aleksander Vennamo (originally ''Fennander'') (11 June 1913 – 12 June 1997) was a Finland, Finnish politician. In 1959, he founded the Finnish Rural Party (''Suomen Maaseudun Puolue''), which was succeeded by the True Finns in 1995. ...

had practised during the 1968 presidential election campaign, and he was determined not to submit himself to such a vicious election campaign this time. Finland was also negotiating a free trade agreement with the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

, and most Finnish politicians believed that Finland could get a favourable free trade agreement with President Kekkonen's help.

Results

By electoral district

Aftermath

To most other parties' surprise, the Rural Party retained their 18 MPs. Government formation was difficult due to partisan bickering and the elections' rather inconclusive results. Rafael Paasio of the Social Democrats formed a minority government of his own party in February 1972, replacing the Helsinki city manager Teuvo Aura's liberal caretaker government. Finally, after tough negotiations, Social Democrat

Kalevi Sorsa Taisto Kalevi Sorsa (21December 193016January 2004) was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland three times: 1972–1975, 1977–1979 and 1982–1987. At the time of his death he still held the record for most days of incumb ...

managed to form a new centre-left majority government that included the Social Democrats, the Centre Party, the

Swedish People's Party The Swedish People's Party of Finland (SPP; , SFP; , 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 ...

and the Liberal People's Party in September 1972. President Kekkonen's goal of re-election by Parliament was achieved in January 1973. It was helped by the Rural Party splitting as thirteen of their MPs left to form the

Finnish People's Unity Party Finnish People's Unity Party (, SKYP) was a split from the Finnish Rural Party, Rural Party of Finland. The party was formed as some of the members of the parliamentary group of the Finnish Rural Party, Rural Party of Finland wanted to support ...

, and by most National Coalition MPs supporting his re-election.Aarno Laitinen et al (1981) ''Tamminiemi's Inheritance Dividers'', Lehtimiehet

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 ...