Finns Party

Finns Party
Perussuomalaiset (Finnish)
Sannfinländarna (Swedish)
AbbreviationPS
Sannf
ChairpersonRiikka Purra
SecretaryHarri Vuorenpää
General SecretaryOlli Immonen
Parliamentary group leaderJani Mäkelä
First deputy leaderLeena Meri
FoundersTimo Soini
Raimo Vistbacka
Kari Bärlund
Urpo Leppänen
Founded11 May 1995
Preceded byFinnish Rural Party (de facto)
HeadquartersYrjönkatu 8–10B,
00120 Helsinki[1]
NewspaperPerussuomalainen (magazine)
Suomen Uutiset
Think tankSuomen Perusta
Youth wingFinns Party Youth
(2006–2020)
The Finns Party Youth
(2020–)
Women's wingFinns Party Women[2]
Worker’s wingPeruspuurtajat
Membership (2021)Increase 15,700[3]
Ideology
Political positionRight-wing to far-right
European Parliament groupEuropean Conservatives and Reformists Group
Nordic affiliationNordic Freedom
Colours
  •   Gold
  •   Dark blue
  •   White
Eduskunta
46 / 200
European Parliament
1 / 15
Municipalities
1,351 / 8,859
County seats
155 / 1,379
Website
www.perussuomalaiset.fi

The Finns Party,[4][5][6] (Finnish: Perussuomalaiset, PS; Swedish: Sannfinländarna, Sannf) formerly known as the True Finns,[10] is a right-wing populist political party in Finland.[11] It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party.

The party achieved its electoral breakthrough in the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election, when it won 19.1% of votes,[12] becoming the third largest party in the Parliament of Finland.[13]

In the 2015 election the party got 17.7% of the votes, making it the parliament's second-largest political party.[14] The party was in opposition for the first 20 years of its existence. In 2015, it joined the coalition government formed by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä.

Following a 2017 split, over half of the party's MPs left the parliamentary group and were subsequently expelled from their membership in the party. This defector group, Blue Reform, continued to support the government coalition, while the Finns Party went into opposition. The party, having been reduced to 17 seats after the split, increased its representation to 39 seats in the 2019 Finnish parliamentary election, while Blue Reform failed to win any seats.

During the 2023 Finnish parliamentary election, the Finns Party finished in second place with 46 seats, recording their strongest result since its founding. They then, out of Petteri Orpo’s request, proceeded to form a coalition government with the winning National Coalition Party, the Christian Democrats and Swedish People's Party of Finland. The party currently holds seven ministerial portfolios in the Orpo Cabinet.[15]

  1. ^ "Puoluetoimisto – Perussuomalaiset". Perussuomalaiset.fi. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  2. ^ "NYTKIS – The Coalition of Finnish Women´s Associations". The Coalition of Finnish Women´s Associations. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  3. ^ Neihum, Alec (27 July 2021). "Tällaisia ovat suurimpien puolueiden jäsenet: MTV Uutiset selvitti iät ja sukupuolijakauman – keskustalla, SDP:llä ja vihreillä selvät erityispiirteensä". MTV Uutiset (in Finnish). Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  4. ^ "Finns Party – In English – Perussuomalaiset". Perussuomalaiset.fi. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  5. ^ "Finns Party ponders power". Yle Uutiset. 30 June 2013. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  6. ^ a b "The parliamentary groups". eduskunta.fi. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  7. ^ a b Yle Uutiset: "True Finns" name their party "The Finns", retrieved 20 February 2024
  8. ^ "Perussuomalaiset – True Finns". Archived from the original on 9 December 2007. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  9. ^ "Perussuomalaiset otti käyttöön englanninkielisen nimen". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). STT. 21 August 2011. Archived from the original on 25 February 2014.
  10. ^ The party did not have an official English name until 2011,[7] but the name 'True Finns' was originally used by the party itself[8] and is still occasionally used by the international media. The party's Finnish name has always remained the same and Perussuomalaiset would effectively translate as 'Ordinary Finns', 'Regular Finns' or 'Typical Finns'. In August 2011, the party began using 'The Finns' as an official English name – the party chairman at the time, Timo Soini, said that the new name captured the image of the movement as a party of ordinary Finns.[7][9] However, the party's and the Finnish parliament's English-language websites use the less confusing name, the 'Finns Party'.[6]
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ "Helsingin Sanomat, April 18, 2011, 'SUNDAY EVENING : ELECTION SPECIAL'". Hs.fi. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  13. ^ Yle Uutiset: General Elections 2011 in Finland – Result by party "General Elections 2011 in Finland – Result by party". 20 April 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  14. ^ "Parliamentary Elections 2015 in Finland". Parliamentary Elections 2015 in Finland.
  15. ^ "Hallitustunnustelut ja hallitusneuvottelut 2023". Eduskunta. 16 May 2023.

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