Social Democratic Party of Finland

The Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP) is one of the most influential political parties in Finland, along with the Centre Party and the Coalition Party. Some even debate that the SDP's influence is so extensive, that other polical parties are powerless to challenge it, and merely cooperate, regardless of whether they hold more seats or not. SDP's social democratic politics are generally more moderate than those of the other left-leaning party, the Left Alliance.

Related Topics:
Political parties - Finland - Centre Party - Coalition Party - Social democratic - Left - Left Alliance

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Since the disastrous Civil War in Finland of 1918, SDP lost some of its support, current gaining on average about one-quarter of the vote. The Social Democratic Party has about 59,000 members. Eero Heinäluoma is the party's current chairman. Tarja Halonen was SDP's winning candidate for presidency of Finland in 2000.

Related Topics:
Civil War in Finland - 1918 - Eero Heinäluoma - Tarja Halonen - Presidency of Finland - 2000

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SDP won 53 of the 200 seats in Parliament in the March 16, 2003 elections, which ended in a very close run with the Center Party. As a result, SDP's former chairman Paavo Lipponen became the Speaker of Parliament, and the Centre-chairwoman Anneli Jäätteenmäki became Prime Minister for a coalition Cabinet that also included the minor Swedish People's Party beside the two major partners. SDP has eight portfolios in the Cabinet. After two months Jäätteenmäki was switched for Matti Vanhanen due to a scandal.

Related Topics:
Parliament - March 16 - 2003 - Center Party - Paavo Lipponen - Speaker - Anneli Jäätteenmäki - Prime Minister - Cabinet - Swedish People's Party - Matti Vanhanen

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Note that despite the fact that "sosiaali" in Finnish has a long "a", the name of this party is spelt with a short "a", for historical reasons. The official name (as registered in Finland's party registry) is Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue / Finlands Socialdemokratiska Parti r.p.

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