1954 Finnish parliamentary election
7–8 March 1954
All 200 seats in the Parliament of Finland
101 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Emil Skog V. J. Sukselainen Kusti Kulo
Party SDP Agrarian SKDL
Last election 26.52%, 53 seats 23.26%, 51 seats 21.58%, 43 seats
Seats won 54 53 43
Seat change Increase 1 Increase 2 Steady
Popular vote 527,094 483,958 433,251
Percentage 26.25% 24.10% 21.57%
Swing Decrease 0.27pp Increase 0.84pp Decrease 0.01pp
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Arvo Salminen Eino Saari Ralf Törngren
Party National Coalition People's RKP
Last election 14.57%, 28 seats 5.68%, 10 seats 7.27%, 14 seats
Seats won 24 13 12
Seat change Decrease 4 Increase 3 Decrease 2
Popular vote 257,025 158,323 135,768
Percentage 12.80% 7.88% 6.76%
Swing Decrease 1.77pp Increase 2.20pp Decrease 0.51pp
  Seventh party
 
Party ÅS
Last election 0.31%, 1 seat
Seats won 1
Seat change Steady
Popular vote 4,651
Percentage 0.23%
Swing Decrease 0.08pp
Prime Minister before election

Sakari Tuomioja
Liberal League

 Prime Minister after election

Sakari Tuomioja
Liberal League

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 Kampinkadulle" (lit. Kekkonen Back to Camp Street (Kampinkatu), his home of 25 years before his premiership & which was subsequently renamed after him). 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

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Social Democratic Party527,09426.2554+1
Agrarian League483,95824.1053+2
Finnish People's Democratic League433,25121.57430
National Coalition Party257,02512.8024–4
People's Party158,3237.8813+3
Swedish People's Party135,7686.7612–2
Liberal League6,8100.3400
Åland Coalition4,6510.2310
Small Farmers Party1,0400.0500
Others3370.020–
Total2,008,257100.002000
Valid votes2,008,25799.47
Invalid/blank votes10,7850.53
Total votes2,019,042100.00
Registered voters/turnout2,526,96979.90
Source: Tilastokeskus 2004[4]

By electoral district

Debaters with their assistants at the Finnish Broadcasting Company's radio studio, sitting around a table for an election debate before the 1954 Finnish parliamentary elections
Electoral district Total
seats		 Seats won
SDP ML SKDL Kok SK RKP ÅS
Åland 1 1
Central Finland 12 4 4 2 1 1
Häme 14 5 3 3 2 1
Helsinki 19 6 4 3 3 3
Kymi 15 6 4 2 2 1
Lapland 9 1 4 3 1
North Karelia 11 4 4 2 1
North Savo 13 2 5 4 1 1
North Vaasa 8 1 3 1 1 2
Oulu 18 2 8 6 1 1
Pirkanmaa 13 5 1 4 2 1
Satakunta 14 4 4 3 3
South Savo 12 4 5 1 1 1
South Vaasa 10 1 3 1 2 3
Uusima 15 5 2 3 1 1 3
Varsinais-Suomi 16 4 3 4 2 2 1
Total 200 54 53 43 24 13 12 1
Source: Statistics Finland[5]

References

  1. ↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p606 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ↑ Seppo Zetterberg et al., eds., A Small Giant of the Finnish History / Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen, Helsinki: WSOY, 2003, pages 786, 811, 817-821
  3. ↑ "SUOMEN PANKKI - Historia". Archived from the original on 2013-11-29. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
  4. ↑ 595. Eduskuntavaalit 1927–2003 (Tilastokeskus 2004)
  5. ↑ Suomen virallinen tilasto XXIX A:24: Eduskuntavaalit vuonna 1954. Statistics Finland. 1954.
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