Swedish People's Party of Finland

Swedish People's Party of Finland
Svenska folkpartiet i Finland (Swedish)
Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue (Finnish)
AbbreviationSwedish: SFP
Finnish: RKP, R
ChairpersonAnders Adlercreutz
SecretaryFredrik Guseff [fi]
General SecretaryHanna Seppä
Parliamentary group leaderOtto Andersson (Member of the Finnish Parliament) [fi]
Deputy chairsRamieza Mahdi [fi]
Silja Borgarsdóttir Sandelin [fi]
Sandra Bergqvist
Chair of the party councilEva Biaudet
Founded1906
HeadquartersSimonkatu 8A,
00100 Helsinki, Finland
NewspaperMedborgarbladet [fi]
Student wingLiberala Studerande LSK [sv][1]
Youth wingSvensk Ungdom
Women's wingSvenska Kvinnoförbundet[1]
Membership (2016)Increase 30,000[2]
Ideology
Political positionCentre to centre-right
European affiliationAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
European Parliament groupRenew Europe
International affiliationLiberal International
Nordic affiliationCentre Group
Colours
  •   Blue (official)
  •   Red
  •   Black
  •   Light yellow
Eduskunta[a]
10 / 200
European Parliament
1 / 15
Municipalities
463 / 8,859
County seats
76 / 1,379
Website
www.sfp.fi Edit this at Wikidata

The Swedish People's Party of Finland (SPP; Swedish: Svenska folkpartiet i Finland, SFP; Finnish: Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue, 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.[3][4][5] The party is currently a participant in the Government of Petteri Orpo, holding the posts of Minister of Education, Minister for European Affairs, and Minister of Youth, Sport and Physical Activity.

An ethnic catch-all party,[6] its main election issue since its inception has been the Swedish-speaking Finns' right to their own language while maintaining the official position of the Swedish language in Finland.[7] Ideologically, it is liberal,[8][9][10] social-liberal,[11] centrist,[12][13] and pro-European.[14] The party has been in a governmental position from 1979 to 2015 and again since 2019, with one or two seats in government, and has collaborated with both centre-right and centre-left parties in parliament.

The fact that both the Finnish centre-right and centre-left have needed the support from the party has meant that they have been able to affect politics of Finland on a larger scale than the party's actual size would suggest. The position of the Swedish language as one of two official languages in Finland and the Swedish-speaking minority's right to Swedish culture are two of the results of the party's influence in Finnish politics. The party is a member of the Liberal International, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and Renew Europe. The youth organisation of the party is called Svensk Ungdom (Swedish Youth).

  1. ^ a b "Markus Blomquist ny ordförande för SFP i Åbo". Åbo Underrättelser (in Swedish). 30 November 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  2. ^ http://www.sfp.fi/sv/content/verksamhet SFP website|access date 2016-08-04
  3. ^ Arter, David (1999). Scandinavian Politics Today. Manchester University Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-7190-5133-3.
  4. ^ Bondeson, Ulla (2003). Nordic Moral Climates: Value Continuities and Discontinuities in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Transaction Publishers. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-7658-0203-3.
  5. ^ Hans van den Brandhof (2004). "The Republic of Finland". In Lucas Prakke; Constantijn Kortmann (eds.). Constitutional Law of 15 EU Member States. Kluwer. p. 183. ISBN 978-90-13-01255-2.
  6. ^ K. Beyme (1996). Transition to Democracy in Eastern Europe. Springer. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-230-37433-1.
  7. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Finland". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  8. ^ Bergqvist, Christina (1999). Equal Democracies?: Gender and Politics in the Nordic Countries. Nordic Council of Ministers. p. 319. ISBN 978-82-00-12799-4.
  9. ^ Juvonen, Tuula (2016-05-01). "Out and Elected: Political Careers of Openly Gay and Lesbian Politicians in Germany and Finland". Redescriptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History and Feminist Theory. 19 (1): 49. doi:10.7227/R.19.1.4. ISSN 2308-0914.
  10. ^ Bale, Tim (2021). Riding the populist wave: Europe's mainstream right in crisis. Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-009-00686-6. OCLC 1256593260.
  11. ^ Vít Hloušek; Lubomír Kopeček (2010). Origin, Ideology and Transformation of Political Parties: East-Central and Western Europe Compared. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 204. ISBN 978-0-7546-7840-3.
  12. ^ Lane, Jan-Erik; Ersson, Svante (2008). "Political Institutions in Europe". In Josep M. Colomer (ed.). The Nordic Countries: Compromise and Corporatism in the Welfare State. Routledge. p. 260. ISBN 978-1-134-07354-2.
  13. ^ "Finland MPs vote to keep Swedish in schools". The Local Sweden. 2015-03-06. Retrieved 2021-12-21.
  14. ^ RKP, SFP (2019). "SFP:s Riksdag ValsProgram 2019". SFP. Retrieved 18 April 2019.


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