19 April 2015 2019 → 2012 1997 35 seats, 15.8% 39 seats, 19.1% | Turnout 70.1% 1997 2014 39 seats, 19.1% 44 seats, 20.4% | |
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The 2015 Finnish parliamentary election was held on 19 April 2015, with advance voting from 8 to 14 April. The 200 members of the Finnish Parliament were elected with the proportional D'Hondt method.
Contents
- Previous government parties
- Changes to the electoral districts
- Government formation
- Members of parliament
- References
There were 4,463,333 people entitled to vote in Finland and abroad.
Previous government parties
The incumbent government was formed by a four party coalition, composed of the National Coalition Party, Social Democratic Party, Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats as well as the MP for Åland. Left Alliance and the Green League were initially also part of the governing coalition, but both left in 2014.
On 22 June 2011, the parliament elected Jyrki Katainen as prime minister by a vote of 118–72; two Left Alliance MPs voted against Katainen, for which they were formally reprimanded by the Left Alliance parliamentary group. They were subsequently expelled from the group, reducing the government majority from 126 MPs to 124. In March 2014 the Left Alliance announced that it was leaving the cabinet, citing the party's opposition to budget cuts in social welfare programs, which had been agreed to by the other five parties. This reduced the government's majority to 112 MPs.
In April 2014 Jyrki Katainen announced that he would not seek another term as the chairman of the National Coalition Party. The NCP chose Alexander Stubb as its new chairman in June, and he subsequently became the new Prime Minister. In September 2014 the Green League announced that it was leaving the cabinet. The Greens were opposed to the other governing parties' decision to grant Fennovoima a licence for building a nuclear power plant in Pyhäjoki. The Greens' departure cut the government's majority to 102 MPs (including the Speaker of the Parliament, who does not vote).
Changes to the electoral districts
In 2013 the parliament decided to merge certain electoral districts to create larger districts: the electoral districts of Northern Savonia and North Karelia have been merged into a new district called Savonia-Karelia, while the electoral districts of Kymi and Southern Savonia have been merged into a new district called South-Eastern Finland.
Government formation
As the leader of the largest party, Juha Sipilä of Centre was tasked with forming the new government coalition. In early May Sipilä announced that he will seek to form a right-leaning majority coalition consisting of the three largest parties – the Centre Party, the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party. The coalition negotiations were successful and led to the formation of the Sipilä cabinet on 29 May.
Members of parliament
In 2015 the richest MP’s were Anne Berner and Eero Lehti.