Election Name: | 2015 Finnish parliamentary election |
Country: | Finland |
Flag Year: | state |
Type: | parliamentary |
Ongoing: | np |
Previous Election: | 2011 Finnish parliamentary election |
Previous Year: | 2011 |
Outgoing Members: | List of members of the Parliament of Finland, 2011–15 |
Elected Members: | List of members of the Parliament of Finland, 2015–19 |
Next Election: | 2019 Finnish parliamentary election |
Next Year: | 2019 |
Seats For Election: | All 200 seats in Parliament |
Election Date: | 19 April 2015 |
Majority Seats: | 101 |
Leader1: | Juha Sipilä |
Party1: | Centre Party (Finland) |
Popular Vote1: | 626,218 |
Last Election1: | 35 seats, 15.8% |
Percentage1: | 21.1% |
Swing1: | 5.3pp |
Seats1: | 49 |
Seat Change1: | 14 |
Leader2: | Timo Soini |
Party2: | True Finns |
Popular Vote2: | 524,054 |
Last Election2: | 39 seats, 19.1% |
Percentage2: | 17.7% |
Swing2: | 1.4pp |
Seats2: | 38 |
Seat Change2: | 1 |
Leader3: | Alexander Stubb |
Party3: | National Coalition Party |
Popular Vote3: | 540,212 |
Last Election3: | 44 seats, 20.4% |
Percentage3: | 18.2% |
Swing3: | 2.2pp |
Seats3: | 37 |
Seat Change3: | 7 |
Leader4: | Antti Rinne |
Party4: | Social Democratic Party of Finland |
Popular Vote4: | 490,102 |
Last Election4: | 42 seats, 19.1% |
Percentage4: | 16.5% |
Swing4: | 2.6pp |
Seats4: | 34 |
Seat Change4: | 8 |
Leader5: | Ville Niinistö |
Party5: | Green League |
Popular Vote5: | 253,102 |
Last Election5: | 10 seats, 7.3% |
Percentage5: | 8.5% |
Swing5: | 1.3pp |
Seats5: | 15 |
Seat Change5: | 5 |
Leader6: | Paavo Arhinmäki |
Party6: | Left Alliance (Finland) |
Popular Vote6: | 211,702 |
Last Election6: | 14 seats, 8.1% |
Percentage6: | 7.1% |
Swing6: | 1.0pp |
Seats6: | 12 |
Seat Change6: | 2 |
Leader7: | Carl Haglund |
Party7: | Swedish People's Party of Finland |
Popular Vote7: | 144,802 |
Last Election7: | 9 seats, 4.3% |
Percentage7: | 4.9% |
Swing7: | 0.6pp |
Seats7: | 9 |
Seat Change7: | 0 |
Leader8: | Päivi Räsänen |
Party8: | Christian Democrats (Finland) |
Popular Vote8: | 105,134 |
Last Election8: | 6 seats, 4.0% |
Percentage8: | 3.5% |
Swing8: | 0.5pp |
Seats8: | 5 |
Seat Change8: | 1 |
Leader9: | Mats Löfström |
Party9: | Åland Coalition |
Popular Vote9: | 10,910 |
Last Election9: | 1 seat, 0.3% |
Percentage9: | 0.4% |
Swing9: | 0.0pp |
Seats9: | 1 |
Seat Change9: | 0 |
Map Size: | 450px |
Prime Minister | |
Posttitle: | Prime Minister after election |
Before Election: | Alexander Stubb |
Before Party: | National Coalition Party |
After Election: | Juha Sipilä |
After Party: | Centre Party (Finland) |
Registered: | 4,463,333 |
Turnout: | 70.1% (0.4pp) |
Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 19 April 2015,[1] with advance voting taking place from 8 to 14 April.[2] The 200 members of the Parliament of Finland were elected with the proportional D'Hondt method.
There were 4,463,333 people entitled to vote in Finland and abroad.[3]
The incumbent government was a four-party coalition composed of the National Coalition Party, Social Democratic Party, Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats as well as independent Member of Parliament Elisabeth Nauclér. The 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.[4] 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.[5] The Greens' departure cut the government's majority to 102 MPs (including the Speaker of the Parliament, who does not vote).[6]
In 2013 the parliament decided to merge certain electoral districts to create larger districts: the electoral districts of Northern Savonia and North Karelia were merged into a new district called Savonia-Karelia, while the electoral districts of Kymi and Southern Savonia were merged into a new district called South-Eastern Finland.[7]
Electoral district | Seats | |
---|---|---|
22 | ||
35 | ||
17 | ||
8 | ||
1 | ||
14 | ||
19 | ||
17 | ||
16 | ||
16 | ||
10 | ||
18 | ||
7 |
See main article: Opinion polling for the Finnish parliamentary election, 2015.
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 would 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.[8] The coalition negotiations were successful and led to the formation of the Sipilä cabinet on 29 May.