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Finland The Parliamentary Election of 1987
The March 1987 elections moved the country somewhat to
the
right. It was uncertain how far, because the voter
participation
rate--at a comparatively low 75 percent, 5 percent lower
than
usual--hurt the left more than the right and had a varying
impact. The KOK, for example, increased its percentage of
the
votes by only 1 percent and saw a tiny increase in
absolute
terms, yet it gained nine seats in the Eduskunta and
almost
caught up with the chamber's largest party, the SDP. The
socialists' take dropped by 2.6 percent, with 100,000
fewer
votes, yet they lost only one seat in the Eduskunta
because of
the way their votes were distributed across the country.
Kesk
garnered the same portion of the vote that it had in 1983,
but it
achieved a small increase in the actual number of votes
and
gained two new seats. The Greens, who had registered a
significant gain in the communal elections of October
1984, got
only two new representatives, far fewer than expected, for
a
total of four. The SKDL, electoral vehicle of the
reformist SKP,
lost a seat, while DEVA, controlled by the Stalinist
Committee of
SKP Organizations, lost six of the ten seats it had
controlled
since its representatives were expelled from the SKDL in
June
1986. Weakened perhaps from its membership in the
long-lived
government, the SMP lost more than one-third of its
support and
almost half of its seats. Two of the small centrist
parties did
well: the SFP gained another seat, just as it had in 1983,
and
the SKL secured two more for a total of five.
Faced with these inconclusive results, negotiations
about the
shape of the new government got underway. After six weeks
of
talks and attempts to put together a completely
nonsocialist
government, a pathbreaking combination was formed that
included
conservatives and socialists in the Council of State,
joined by
the dependable and successful SFP and the battered and
desperate
SMP.
The new government, consisting of nine centrist and
conservative and eight socialist ministers and headed by
the
KOK's Harri Holkeri, surprised some observers because a
nonsocialist government was possible and seemed
appropriate given
the election results. The outcome angered others, who
contended
that Koivisto had misused presidential powers when he
brokered a
government that had his former party as a member despite
its
considerable electoral losses. Koivisto countered that he
had
behaved properly and had let the parties themselves argue
out a
workable combination.
One explanation for the unusual government was that
animosity
against the Kesk leader, Vayrynen, was so common in both
the SDP
and the KOK that neither party was willing to form a
government
with him. Thus, Kesk was deprived of its traditional
"hinge"
role. Another consideration was that the SDP and the KOK
were not
so much at odds with each another as socialist and
conservative
parties elsewhere might have been. Both parties had moved
toward
the center, and they were in agreement about most issues,
especially about the need to reduce the agricultural
subsidies
that had always been defended by Kesk. The resulting
"red-blue"
government had as program objective the preservation of
the
social welfare system, the improvement of Finland's
competitive
position in international trade, a fundamental reform of
the tax
system, and adherence to the Paasikivi-Kekkonen Line in
foreign
affairs. The SFP fit in easily with this program. The
formerly
rightist, but now moderate, SMP was included because it
strengthened the government slightly and because it was
likely to
be dependable, because it had no other place to go.
Koivisto
informed the new government that it would not have to
resign
after the presidential election of 1988, and observers
expected
the cabinet to serve its full term until the 1991
parliamentary
elections.
Data as of December 1988
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