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Finnish Rural Party Suomen Maaseudun Puolue | |
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Founded | 1959 |
Dissolved | 1995 (de facto) 2003 (de jure) |
Split from | Agrarian League |
Succeeded by | Finns Party (de facto) |
Headquarters | Helsinki |
Ideology | Agrarianism Populism |
Political position | Syncretic |
The Finnish Rural Party (Finnish: Suomen maaseudun puolue, SMP; Swedish: Finlands landsbygdsparti, FLP) was an agrarian[1] and populist[2] political party in Finland. Starting as a breakaway faction of the Agrarian League in 1959 as the Small Peasants' Party of Finland (Suomen Pientalonpoikien Puolue), the party was identified with the person of Veikko Vennamo, a former Agrarian League Member of Parliament known for his opposition to the politics of President Urho Kekkonen. Vennamo was chairman of the Finnish Rural Party between 1959 and 1979.
Support for the party was at its highest in the 1970s and 1980s, with its share of the votes reaching around 10 percent in some parliamentary elections.[3] Between 1983 and 1990, the party took part in two coalition governments. In the 1990s, the party fell into financial trouble and was disbanded in 1995; it was formally dissolved in 2003. It was succeeded by the Finns Party.