The Social Democratic Party of Finland ( , SDP, nicknamed: ''demarit'' in Finnish; , SD) is a
social democratic
Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...
political party in Finland. It is the third-largest party in the
Parliament of Finland
The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral and Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that ...
with a total of 43 seats.
Founded in 1899 as the Workers' Party of Finland (; ), the SDP is Finland's oldest active political party and has a close relationship with the
Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions. It is also a member of the
Party of European Socialists
The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a Social democracy, social democratic European political party.
The PES comprises national-level political parties from all the European Economic Area, European economic area states (EEA) plus the Unit ...
,
Progressive Alliance
The Progressive Alliance (PA) is a political international of progressive and social democratic political parties and organisations founded on 22 May 2013 in Leipzig, Germany. The alliance was formed as an alternative to the existing Socia ...
and
Socialist International
The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism, consisting mostly of Social democracy, social democratic political parties and Labour mov ...
.
Following the resignation of
Antti Rinne
Antti Juhani Rinne (; born 3 November 1962) is a Finnish politician who served as speaker of the Parliament of Finland from April to June 2019 and Prime Minister of Finland from June to December 2019. He led the Social Democratic Party from 2 ...
in December 2019,
Sanna Marin became the country's 46th
prime minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
. The SDP formed a new
coalition government
A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...
on the basis of its predecessor, the
Rinne Cabinet, in effect continuing its cooperation with the
Centre Party,
Green League,
Left Alliance and
Swedish People's Party. Of the nineteen ministerial spots that were decided upon in conjunction, seven of them were designated to the SDP in the
Marin Cabinet. In September 2023,
Antti Lindtman
Antti Ilmari Lindtman (born 11 August 1982) is a Finnish politician who has served as Social Democratic Party of Finland#Leaders of the Social Democrats, leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) since September 2023. He has been the chairman ...
was elected as leader of the party following Marin's resignation after the
2023 Finnish parliamentary election.
History

The party was founded as the Workers' Party of Finland in 1899, with its first meeting being held from 17–20 July in
Turku
Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...
. At the beginning of the 1900s the party presented demands as well as solutions to the
tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is a farmer or farmworker who resides and works on land owned by a landlord, while tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and ma ...
question, the managing of employment, improvement of
workers' rights
Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, ...
,
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...
and an
8-hour work day.
In its 1903 second party conference in
Forssa
Forssa is a Cities of Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located almost in the centre of a triangle defined by the three largest major cities in Finland (Helsinki, Turku and Tampere), in the Tavastia Prop ...
, the party's name was renamed to the present form: Social Democratic Party of Finland, but the
Grand Duchy of Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire.
Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...
's then
governor-general
Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...
Nikolay Bobrikov had outlawed the SDP from using "social democratic" in their name before, but this ban was not followed on by the party members when the name was changed. At the same time, the at the time radical
Forssa Programme was agreed upon, which served as the official party platform until 1952. The goals of the programme were as follows: an 8-hour workday, a
minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...
,
universal compulsory education and
prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...
.
The
Forssa Programme is based on the
Erfurt Program
The Erfurt Program was adopted by the Social Democratic Party of Germany during the SPD Congress at Erfurt in 1891. Drafted by theorists Karl Kautsky and Eduard Bernstein, the program set out a Marxist view and superseded the party's Gotha P ...
me approved by the
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...
in 1891 and the
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...
's programme, respectively. Its immediate demands have been fulfilled, but the most significant and currently unfulfilled requirement is the right to vote directly on laws (
direct democracy
Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...
, as opposed to
representative democracy
Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies func ...
xcept for two times, and then just on advisory referendums: once about prohibition in 1931 and another on the 1994 Finnish European Union membership referendum.]) The demands on total separation of church and state, abolition of religious education in all schools and the prohibition of alcohol have all since then been abandoned.
The SDP was closely associated with the
Finnish Trade Union Federation (SAJ), established in 1907, with all of its members also being members of the party. The party remained a chiefly extra-parliamentary movement until
universal suffrage
Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...
was introduced in 1906, after which the SDP's share of the votes reached 47% in the
1916 Finnish parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in the Grand Duchy of Finland on 1 and 3 July 1916.
Background
The Parliament of Finland, Finnish Parliament had not been in session during the early years of World War I. The Russian Army, Russian army's severe ...
, when the party secured a
majority
A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below.
It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...
in the parliament, the only time in the history of Finland when one party has had such a majority. The party lost its majority in the
1917 Finnish parliamentary election after the
Russian Provisional Government
The Russian Provisional Government was a provisional government of the Russian Empire and Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately after the abdication of Nicholas II on 2 March, O.S. New_Style.html" ;"title="5 ...
had rejected its ''Valtalaki 1917'' proposal and disbanded the Finnish government, starting a rebellion with the broader Finnish labour movement that quickly escalated into the
Finnish Civil War
The Finnish Civil War was a civil war in Finland in 1918 fought for the leadership and control of the country between Whites (Finland), White Finland and the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic (Red Finland) during the country's transition fr ...
in 1918.
SDP members declared Finland a
socialist republic, but they were defeated by the forces of the
White Guard. The war resulted in most of the party leaders being killed, imprisoned or left to seek refuge in
Soviet Russia. In addition, the process leading to the civil war and the war itself had stripped the party of its
political legitimacy
In political science, legitimacy is a concept which turns brute force into power. The right and acceptance of an authority, usually a governing law or a regime, at least formally, are impossible to be built on one's brute force, or to coerce peop ...
and respectability in the eyes of the right-wing majority. However, the political support for the party remained strong. In the
1919 Finnish parliamentary election, the party, reorganised by
Väinö Tanner, received 80 of the 200 seats of the parliament. In 1918, former exiled SDP members founded the
Communist Party of Finland (SKP) in Moscow. Although the SKP was banned in Finland until 1944, it was represented by front organisations, leading to the support of the Finnish working class being divided between the SDP and the SKP.
It became the life's work of
Väinö Tanner to re-establish the SDP as a serious, governing party. The result was a much more patriotic SDP which leaned less to the left and was relatively isolated from its
Nordic sister parties, namely the
Danish Social Democrats, the
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party (; , A or Ap; ), formerly The Norwegian Labour Party (, DNA), is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Norway, political party in Norway. It is positioned on the centre-left of the political spectru ...
and the
Swedish Social Democratic Party
The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( , S or SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( ), is a social democratic political party in Sweden. The party is member of the Progressiv ...
. President
Pehr Evind Svinhufvud
Pehr Evind Svinhufvud af Qvalstad (, 15 December 1861 – 29 February 1944) was the third president of Finland from 1931 to 1937. Serving as a lawyer, judge, and politician in the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was at that time an autonomous s ...
's animosity kept the SDP out of government during his presidency from 1931 to 1937. With the exception of a brief period in 1926, when Tanner formed a minority government, the SDP was excluded from cabinet participation until
Kyösti Kallio
Kyösti Kallio (, 10 April 1873 – 19 December 1940) was a Finnish politician who served as the fourth president of Finland from 1937 to 1940. His presidency included leading the country through the Winter War; while he relinquished the post ...
was elected President in 1937. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the party played a central role in a series of broad coalition cabinets, symbolising national unity forged in response to the threat of the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in the
Winter War
The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...
of 1939–1940. The SDP was a member of the
Labour and Socialist International
The Labour and Socialist International (LSI) was an international organization of socialist and labourist parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The group was established through a merger of the rival Vienna International and the Berne Intern ...
from 1923 to 1940.
During the first few months of the
Continuation War
The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet–Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union during World War II. It began with a Finnish declaration of war on 25 June 1941 and ended on 19 ...
(1941–1944), the country, the parliament and the cabinet were divided on the question of whether Finland's army should stop at the old border and thereby demonstratively refrain from any attempt of conquests. However, the country's dangerous position called for national unity and the SDP's leadership chose to refrain from any visible protests. This decision is sometimes indicated as one of the main reasons behind the post-war division between the main left-wing parties (the SKP and the SDP) and the high percentage of SKP voters in the first elections after the Continuation War. After the war, the SKP was allowed to continue working and the main feature of Finnish political life during the 1944–1949 period was the competition between the SDP and the SKP, both for voters and for the control of the labour unions. During this time, the political field was divided roughly equally between the SDP, the SKP and the
Agrarian League, each party commanding some 25% of the vote. In the post-war era, the SDP adopted a line of defending Finnish sovereignty and democracy in line with the Agrarian League and other
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
political parties, finally leading to the expulsion of the SKP from the cabinet in 1948. As a result, the Soviet Union remained more openly critical towards the SDP than the centre-right parties.
Because of the SDP's
anti-communism
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...
, the United States
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
supported the party by means of funds laundered through Nordic sister parties or through organisations that bought luxury goods such as coffee abroad, then imported and sold them for a high profit as post-war
rationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution (marketing), distribution of scarcity, scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resourc ...
served to inflate prices. In the
1956 Finnish presidential election, the SDP candidate
Karl-August Fagerholm lost by only one electoral vote to
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 ...
. Fagerholm would act as Prime Minister in the
Fagerholm II Cabinet (1956–1957) and the
Fagerholm III Cabinet (1958–1959). The latter cabinet was forced to resign due to Soviet pressure, leading to a series of cabinets led by the Agrarian League. In 1958, due to the election of
Väinö Tanner as party chairman, a faction of the SDP resigned and formed the
Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders (TPSL) around the former SDP chairman
Emil Skog. The dispute was over several issues, namely whether the party should function as an interest group and whether it should co-operate with the anti-communists and right-wingers or with president Kekkonen, the Agrarian League and the SKP. During the 1960s, the TPSL dwindled, its members returning one by one to the SDP or joining the SKP, with Skog himself returning to the SDP in 1965. In the
1970 Finnish parliamentary election, the TPSL failed to gain any seats in parliament. Only in 1966 was the SDP able to satisfy the Soviet Union about its friendly attitude towards it and could thus return to the cabinet. Since then, the SDP has been represented in most Finnish cabinets, often cooperating with the
centrist
Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...
-
agrarian Centre Party (formerly the Agrarian League), but sometimes with the
liberal-conservative
Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by libe ...
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 ...
. The SDP was in opposition from 1991 to 1995, when the main parties in the cabinet were the Centre Party and 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 ...
(NCP).
The
1995 Finnish parliamentary election saw a landslide victory for the SDP, achieving their best results since
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The SDP rose to government from the opposition and leader
Paavo Lipponen headed two consecutive cabinets from 1995 to 2003. During this time, the party adopted a
pro-European
Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Pol ...
stance and contributed actively to the Finnish membership in the European Union in 1995 in concert with the cabinet. In the
2003 Finnish parliamentary election, the SDP won 53 of the 200 seats, ending up a close second to the Centre Party. As a result, Lipponen became the
Speaker of Parliament and the Centre Party leader
Anneli Jäätteenmäki became the new
Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
, leading a
coalition cabinet that included the SDP which got eight ministerial posts. After two months in office, Jäätteenmäki resigned due to a scandal relating to the
Iraq leak and was replaced by
Matti Vanhanen
Matti Taneli Vanhanen (; born 4 November 1955) is a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland from 2003 to 2010. He was also Chairman of the Centre Party (Finland), Centre Party in 2006. In his earlier career, he was a journali ...
, another Centre Party representative, who commanded the
Vanhanen I Cabinet.
In the
2007 Finnish parliamentary election, the SDP gained the third-most votes. The chairman of the then-largest Centre Party, Matti Vanhanen, became the Prime Minister and formed a
coalition cabinet consisting of the
Green League, the NCP and the
Swedish People's Party of Finland
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 i ...
(SPP), leaving the SDP to the opposition. SDP leader
Eero Heinäluoma
Eero Olavi Heinäluoma (born 4 July 1955) is a Finnish politician who has been serving as Member of the European Parliament since 2019. A former chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, he was replaced in the party's leadership by J ...
did not immediately resign as party chairman, but he did announce his withdrawal from running for party chairman in the following party conference. He was replaced by
Jutta Urpilainen. The SDP suffered further losses in the
2008 Finnish municipal elections and the
2009 European Parliament election
The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Member of the European Parliament, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent s ...
. In the
2011 Finnish parliamentary election, the SDP lost three more seats, ending up with 19.1 percent of the vote which corresponded to 42 seats, the party's worst-ever result. However, as the Centre Party lost even more voters, the SDP became the second-largest party in the country after the NCP, receiving only some 1,500 votes more than the
Finns Party
The Finns Party ( , PS; , Sannf), formerly known as the True Finns, is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party.
The party achieved its electoral breakthro ...
which came in third. After lengthy negotiations, a six-party coalition government, the
Katainen Cabinet, was formed with the NCP and the SDP as the two main parties. SDP leader Jutta Urpilainen became the cabinet's
Minister of Finance, with NCP chairman
Jyrki Katainen serving as Prime Minister.
In the 2014 party conference, Urpilainen was narrowly defeated by her challenger
Antti Rinne
Antti Juhani Rinne (; born 3 November 1962) is a Finnish politician who served as speaker of the Parliament of Finland from April to June 2019 and Prime Minister of Finland from June to December 2019. He led the Social Democratic Party from 2 ...
in a 257 to 243 vote. Urpilainen subsequently stepped down as the Minister of Finance, passing the seat on to Rinne. In the
2015 Finnish parliamentary election, the drop of support continued for the SDP. The party lost eight more seats compared to the 2011 parliamentary election, ending up with 34 seats and 16.5 percent of the vote. With the repeat of the worst-ever result, the SDP dropped to being the fourth largest political party in Finland, receiving 50,110 fewer votes than the NCP, yet 237,000 more votes than the Green League. The SDP was left in the opposition and provided extensive criticism on the actions of the
Sipilä Cabinet on matters such as alcohol policy, cuts to education spending and the so-called active model. On 22 June 2016,
Maria Tolppanen, a Finns Party representative, joined the SDP. This increased the SDP's parliamentary seat number to 35.
In the
2019 Finnish parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 14 April 2019. For the first time, no party received more than 20% of the vote. The Centre Party, which had been the largest party following the 2015 Finnish parliamentary election, 2015 elections, ...
, the SDP gained 6 seats in comparison to the 2015 parliamentary election and became the largest party in the parliament. Based on the answers and initial talks with all parties,
Rinne announced that he would negotiate forming a government with the
Centre Party, the
Green League, the
Left Alliance and the
Swedish People's Party. The negotiations were ultimately successful and the
Rinne Cabinet was formally inaugurated on 6 June 2019. On 3 December 2019, Rinne resigned as Prime Minister after the Centre Party had expressed a lack of confidence in Rinne for his handling of the events surrounding a postal strike in Finland. He was followed in the position by
Sanna Marin, who was appointed as Prime Minister on 10 December 2019.
Ideology
The SDP is a centre-left
social-democratic
Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, socia ...
party.
In its 2020 declaration of principles the party's ideals and priorities are:
sustainable development
Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...
,
all-encompassing equality,
peace
Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...
,
solidarity
Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...
,
freedom
Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws".
In one definition, something is "free" i ...
,
co-operation
Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English and, with a varied usage along time, coöperation) takes place when a group of organisms works or acts together for a collective benefit to the group as opposed to working in competition ...
,
a clean and pristine environment together with
democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic ideology, economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and wor ...
. The SDP also embraces
humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and Agency (philosophy), agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The me ...
's values as well as the
Nordic model
The Nordic model comprises the economic and social policies as well as typical cultural practices common in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). This includes a comprehensive welfare state and multi-level colle ...
's accomplishments.
In the 1900s, the party known as the ''Finnish Workers' Party'' was founded on the basis of
social issue
A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's control. Soc ...
s, class and
socialism
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
. SDP was the only political party in Finland for a long time. In 1907, the SDP was the strongest socialist party in Europe, as evidenced by the qualified majority in the
Senate of Finland
The Senate of Finland (; ) combined the functions of Cabinet (government), cabinet and supreme court in the Grand Duchy of Finland from 1816 to 1917 and in independent Finland from 1917 to 1918.
The body that would become the Senate was establis ...
in 1917. At the beginning of the 20th century, the party received its main support from groups of the
landless population and the
rural population. In 1919, at the SDP's meeting, a split was made with the radical communists, as a result of which they broke away and founded the
SSTP. As a result of the
civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
and the
October Revolution
The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
, the workers' movement became even more divided.
Up until the
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
, the party opposed Finland joining NATO and instead preferred for it to remain in the Partnership for Peace.
The SDP is in favour of LGBT rights by country or territory, queer rights, the construction of nuclear power plants, the conservation of Swedish language, Swedish as one of Finland's two official languages, the separation of church and state, and to the increase of funding given by the state to State school, public schools and universities. The party is advocating for Finland to become coal-free by 2030. The SDP had advocated for policies preventing foreigners from outside the EU from working in Finland, but has since then softened its positions on immigration and has come to support certain immigration reforms. In its 2023 parliamentary Party platform, election programme its self-declared goal was the increase of work-based immigration coming to Finland as a way of responding to the country's labour shortage and low birth rate. In 2023, the SDP, along with the National Coalition Party, NCP, both criticised the
Finns Party
The Finns Party ( , PS; , Sannf), formerly known as the True Finns, is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party.
The party achieved its electoral breakthro ...
for their lack of willingness to the easing of work permit requirements for foreigners coming from outside the European Union.
The party opposed certain economic reforms both in the
2011 Finnish parliamentary election and in the subsequent negotiations about the government programme. The SDP maintains a close relationship with trade unions. The party has opposed social reforms that would reduce the role of earnings-related unemployment benefits. The government pays the benefits to recipients through financial middlemen that are almost exclusively trade unions.
Controversies
Some of the SDP's politicians have received criticism about their defense of Russia for years by the media and academics, for example, SDP politicians
Eero Heinäluoma
Eero Olavi Heinäluoma (born 4 July 1955) is a Finnish politician who has been serving as Member of the European Parliament since 2019. A former chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, he was replaced in the party's leadership by J ...
,
Paavo Lipponen, Erkki Tuomioja, Antton Rönnholm and Tarja Halonen have received critique on their positions towards Russia.
In 2005, according to Halonen, Russia's goals were: "...democracy, human rights and good governance." Nine years later, in 2014 after Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, Russia annexed Crimea, Halonen thought that Russia should not have been punished by sanctions or isolation.
SDP's former party secretary Antton Rönnholm has also taken his part. Through his Consulting firm, consulting firm's services offered to Gazprom, he was sent an invoice for almost 200,000 euros for assisting in the South Stream, South Stream gas pipeline project. More than half of Gazprom is owned by the Russian state, and it is partly used as a geopolitical tool in Europe and the rest of the world.
In February 2022, politician Erkki Tuomioja published a work with the title "Finland and NATO – Why Finland should have the opportunity to apply for NATO membership and why that opportunity should not be used now". In his work Tuomioja estimated that Russia was viewed rather unanalytically.
Also in February 2022, when Russia had already been pressuring Ukraine for a long time, the social-democratic Member of the European Parliament, MEP
Eero Heinäluoma
Eero Olavi Heinäluoma (born 4 July 1955) is a Finnish politician who has been serving as Member of the European Parliament since 2019. A former chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, he was replaced in the party's leadership by J ...
and Mauri Pekkarinen from the
Centre Party both said in a Finnish current affairs television programme that preparing for a Russian threat was part of the problem. According to Heinäluoma, placing defensive armaments in Russia's neighbouring countries was instead a threat to Russia.
Paavo Lipponen has lobbied for and been a consultant for Russia's Nord Stream project since 2008. In that year Russo-Georgian War, Russia went to war with Georgia. In a report published by the European Parliament's special committee in 2022, the Social Democratic Party prime minister Lipponen and Centre Party prime minister Esko Aho were stated to be among the European politicians that Russia and China had hijacked to promote their special interests. Some current SDP politicians have therefore appeased Russia in the past.
In September 2023, when
Antti Lindtman
Antti Ilmari Lindtman (born 11 August 1982) is a Finnish politician who has served as Social Democratic Party of Finland#Leaders of the Social Democrats, leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) since September 2023. He has been the chairman ...
got elected Chairperson, chair of the SDP a scandal broke out due to an old picture of him posing near four other naked young adults, nude, wearing a pointed hat in the style of a christmas elf, covered by a Balaclava (clothing), balaclava and with an airsoft gun in hand while in his Adolescence, adolescent years, while two others were doing a nazi salute in the same picture. Because of this, Lindtman was accused of being a nazi. He responded by stating that the image had been taken during his time in a high school film group by the name of "Team Paha, English: Team Bad" in a Pikkujoulu party while they were messing around and posted online. Lindtman additionally firmly denied the allegation of being a Nazism, national socialist.
The Secretary (title), party secretary, Mikkel Näkkäläjärvi's, nomination and subsequent appointment to his role during the SDP's 2023 Party conference, conference in Jyväskylä was criticised because of his criminal background. In 2011 he had Drunk driving, driven a car while under the presence of alcohol, and was charged with a 30-day suspended sentence and an accompanying fine. Näkkäläjärvi had also broken into a retired old lady's Cottage, summer cottage as a 15-year-old teenager with three others around the same age as him and participated in the killing and burning of a grown-up cat in a bonfire. Following this, he was charged with burglary, vandalism and Cruelty to animals, animal cruelty as a young person. Näkkäläjärvi has apologised for all of his past misdeeds.
Voter base
The average age of an SDP member is 61.5 years.
Over one half of all SDP voters are active members of the workforce.
Organization
Symbols, logos and posters
File:Sozialdemokratische Partei Finnlands Logo.svg, Logo from 2020 to the present day.
File:SDP Leaf 2010–2015.svg, Logo from 2010–2015.
File:Sosiaalidemokraatit (vanha logo).svg, Logo from 2009–2010.
File:Sozialdemokratische Partei Finnlands Logo Alt.svg, Historical logo.
File:SDP historic logo.svg, Original logo.
File:Työ.jpg, TYÖ Poster used in the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election and the 2012 Finnish municipal elections.
File:Tulonjako.png, A Social Democratic Party poster for the 1972 Finnish parliamentary election.
Party Leaders
Prominent members
Election results
Parliament of Finland
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bar:1908 from:start till:38.40 text:38.4
bar:1909 from:start till:39.89 text:39.9
bar:1910 from:start till:40.04 text:40.0
bar:1911 from:start till:40.03 text:40.0
bar:1913 from:start till:43.11 text:43.1
bar:1916 from:start till:47.29 text:47.3
bar:1917 from:start till:44.79 text:44.8
bar:1919 from:start till:37.98 text:38.0
bar:1922 from:start till:25.06 text:25.1
bar:1924 from:start till:29.02 text:29.0
bar:1927 from:start till:28.30 text:28.3
bar:1929 from:start till:27.36 text:27.4
bar:1930 from:start till:34.16 text:34.2
bar:1933 from:start till:37.33 text:37.3
bar:1936 from:start till:38.59 text:38.6
bar:1939 from:start till:39.77 text:39.8
bar:1945 from:start till:25.08 text:25.1
bar:1948 from:start till:26.32 text:26.3
bar:1951 from:start till:26.52 text:26.5
bar:1954 from:start till:26.25 text:26.3
bar:1958 from:start till:23.12 text:23.1
bar:1962 from:start till:19.50 text:19.5
bar:1966 from:start till:27.23 text:27.2
bar:1970 from:start till:23.43 text:23.4
bar:1972 from:start till:25.78 text:25.8
bar:1975 from:start till:24.86 text:24.9
bar:1979 from:start till:23.89 text:23.9
bar:1983 from:start till:26.71 text:26.7
bar:1987 from:start till:24.14 text:24.1
bar:1991 from:start till:22.12 text:22.1
bar:1995 from:start till:28.25 text:28.3
bar:1999 from:start till:22.86 text:22.9
bar:2003 from:start till:24.47 text:24.5
bar:2007 from:start till:21.44 text:21.4
bar:2011 from:start till:19.16 text:19.2
bar:2015 from:start till:16.51 text:16.5
bar:2019 from:start till:17.7 text:17.7
bar:2023 from:start till:19.9 text:19.9
Municipal
County
European Parliament
Presidential elections
Indirect
Direct
See also
*
Nordic model
The Nordic model comprises the economic and social policies as well as typical cultural practices common in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). This includes a comprehensive welfare state and multi-level colle ...
* List of Social Democratic Party (Finland) breakaway parties
Notes
References
External links
Official website(in English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Social Democratic Party Of Finland
1899 establishments in the Russian Empire
Centre-left parties in Europe
Full member parties of the Socialist International
Members of the Labour and Socialist International
Parties represented in the European Parliament
Party of European Socialists member parties
Political parties established in 1899
Registered political parties in Finland
Progressive Alliance
Second International parties
Social Democratic Party of Finland,
Socialist parties in Finland
Social democratic parties in Europe
Social democratic parties
Pro-European political parties in Finland