| Country: | Finland |
| Flag Year: | state-1920 |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Previous Election: | 1951 Finnish parliamentary election |
| Previous Year: | 1951 |
| Next Election: | 1958 Finnish parliamentary election |
| Next Year: | 1958 |
| Seats For Election: | All 200 seats in the Parliament of Finland |
| Majority Seats: | 101 |
| Election Date: | 7–8 March 1954 |
| Image1: | Emil-Skog-1957.jpg |
| Leader1: | Emil Skog |
| Party1: | Social Democratic Party of Finland |
| Seats1: | 54 |
| Popular Vote1: | 527,094 |
| Percentage1: | 26.25% |
| Seat Change1: | 1 |
| Swing1: | 0.27pp |
| Leader2: | V. J. Sukselainen |
| Party2: | Agrarian League (Finland) |
| Last Election2: | 23.26%, 51 seats |
| Seats2: | 53 |
| Popular Vote2: | 483,958 |
| Percentage2: | 24.10% |
| Seat Change2: | 2 |
| Swing2: | 0.84pp |
| Image3: | Kulo (cropped).JPG |
| Leader3: | Kusti Kulo |
| Party3: | SKDL |
| Last Election3: | 21.58%, 43 seats |
| Seats3: | 43 |
| Popular Vote3: | 433,251 |
| Percentage3: | 21.57% |
| Swing3: | 0.01pp |
| Image4: | Arvo Salminen (cropped).jpg |
| Leader4: | Arvo Salminen |
| Party4: | National Coalition Party |
| Last Election4: | 14.57%, 28 seats |
| Seats4: | 24 |
| Popular Vote4: | 257,025 |
| Percentage4: | 12.80% |
| Seat Change4: | 4 |
| Swing4: | 1.77pp |
| Image5: | Eino Saari in 1961 (cropped).jpg |
| Leader5: | Eino Saari |
| Party5: | People's |
| Last Election5: | 5.68%, 10 seats |
| Seats5: | 13 |
| Popular Vote5: | 158,323 |
| Percentage5: | 7.88% |
| Seat Change5: | 3 |
| Swing5: | 2.20pp |
| Image6: | Ralf Törngren1.jpg |
| Leader6: | Ralf Törngren |
| Party6: | Swedish People's Party of Finland |
| Last Election6: | 7.27%, 14 seats |
| Seats6: | 12 |
| Seat Change6: | 2 |
| Popular Vote6: | 135,768 |
| Percentage6: | 6.76% |
| Swing6: | 0.51pp |
| Party7: | Åland Coalition |
| Last Election7: | 0.31%, 1 seat |
| Seats7: | 1 |
| Popular Vote7: | 4,651 |
| Percentage7: | 0.23% |
| Swing7: | 0.08pp |
| Before Election: | Sakari Tuomioja |
| Prime Minister | |
| Before Party: | Liberal League |
| Posttitle: | Prime Minister after election |
| After Election: | Ralf Törngren |
| After Party: | Swedish People's Party of Finland |
Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 7 and 8 March 1954.[1]
In June 1953, Prime Minister Urho Kekkonen had presented a simultaneous deflationary program, which tried to lower wages, prices and public expenditures to the level of the export industry's profitability. Among other proposals, the deflationary program aimed to remove the Finnish parents' family allowances for their first children, reduce income, sales and corporate taxes, cut the interest rate, and reduce wages by 10%. Finance Minister Juho Niukkanen (Agrarian League) presented an austerity budget to Parliament in September 1953, which proposed cutting all major government expenditures by 15%. The Social Democratic Party and People's Party of Finland opposed the austerity budget. Since Parliament refused to approve the government's planned changes to the state-subsidized apartment buildings' and other residences' construction, Kekkonen resigned in November 1953. Despite President Juho Kusti Paasikivi's urgings (in his opinion, Kekkonen was a valuable Prime Minister because he managed Finnish-Soviet relations skilfully), the Social Democrats refused to allow Kekkonen to continue as Prime Minister.
Sakari Tuomioja, a member of the Liberal League who had earlier served in the government, for example as Foreign Minister, and had been Governor of the Bank of Finland since 1945, formed a centre-right caretaker government. Tuomioja's government wanted to keep rationing wages, but wanted to dismantle other types of rationing. Coffee was released from rationing in March 1954. Finnish exports grew, and the government's expenditures increased by over 20% compared to Kekkonen's fourth government's proposal. Various right-wingers and Social Democrats preferred early elections to boost their number of deputies, and to prevent Kekkonen from becoming Prime Minister again. Given President Paasikivi's advanced age (83 years) and close relations with Kekkonen, the latter could well succeed Paasikivi as President, should Paasikivi suddenly die or resign.
The Social Democrats went to the election campaign trail with the lofty slogan: "Kekkonen Kampinkadulle" (Kekkonen Back to Camp Street (Kampinkatu), his home of 25 years before his premiership & which was subsequently renamed after him). To their surprise and to that of right-wingers, the Agrarians gained two seats, while the Social Democrats, National Coalition Party and Swedish People's Party suffered a net loss of four seats. Ralf Törngren of the Swedish People's Party formed a centre-left government in May 1954, with Kekkonen as Foreign Minister. The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions favoured the lowering of living costs, through subsidies, to the start level of the economic stabilization period. The Social Democrats and Agrarians agreed and, dissatisfied with Prime Minister Törngren's economic compromises, caused Törngren to resign and Kekkonen to become Prime Minister for the fifth time in October 1954.[2] [3]
| Electoral district | Total seats | Seats won | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDP | ML | SKDL | Kok | SK | RKP | ÅS | |||
| Åland | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Central Finland | 12 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Häme | 14 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Helsinki | 19 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |||
| Kymi | 15 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Lapland | 9 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| North Karelia | 11 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| North Savo | 13 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |||
| North Vaasa | 8 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Oulu | 18 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Pirkanmaa | 13 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Satakunta | 14 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | ||||
| South Savo | 12 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| South Vaasa | 10 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||
| Uusima | 15 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Varsinais-Suomi | 16 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Total | 200 | 54 | 53 | 43 | 24 | 13 | 12 | 1 | |
| Source: Statistics Finland[4] | |||||||||