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Finnish parliamentary election, 1999

Finnish parliamentary election, 1999
Finland
← 1995 21 March 1999 2003 →

All 200 seats to the Parliament
101 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout 65.3%
  First party Second party Third party
  Paavo Lipponen Esko Aho Sauli Niinistö
Leader Paavo Lipponen Esko Aho Sauli Niinistö
Party Social Democratic Centre National Coalition
Leader since 1993 1990 1994
Last election 63 seats, 28.3% 44 seats, 19.9% 39 seats, 17.9%
Seats won 51 48 46
Seat change Decrease12 Increase4 Increase7
Popular vote 612,963 600,592 563,835
Percentage 22.9% 22.4% 21.0%
Swing Decrease5.4% Increase2.6% Increase3.1%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  Suvi-Anne Siimes Satu Hassi Jan-Erik Enestam
Leader Suvi-Anne Siimes Satu Hassi Jan-Erik Enestam
Party Left Alliance Green League Swedish People's
Leader since 1998 1997 1998
Last election 22 seats, 11.2% 9 seats, 6.5% 11 seats, 5.1%
Seats won 20 11 11
Seat change Decrease2 Increase2 Steady0
Popular vote 291,675 194,846 137,330
Percentage 10.9% 7.3% 4.6%
Swing Decrease0.3% Increase0.8% Decrease0.5%

  Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party
  Bjarne Kallis Blank.png Timo Soini
Leader Bjarne Kallis Risto Kuisma Timo Soini
Party Christian League Reform Finns
Leader since 1995 1998 1997
Last election 7 seats, 3.0% new party 1 seat, 1.3% (SMP)
Seats won 10 1 1
Seat change Increase3 Increase1 Steady0
Popular vote 111,835 28,549 26 440
Percentage 4.2% 1.1% 1.0%
Swing Increase1.1% Increase1.1% Decrease0.3%

Prime Minister before election

Paavo Lipponen
Social Democratic

Prime Minister

Paavo Lipponen
Social Democratic


Paavo Lipponen
Social Democratic

Paavo Lipponen
Social Democratic

Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 21 March 1999. Despite suffering significant losses, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) remained the largest party of the Eduskunta and Paavo Lipponen remained Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen's five-party "rainbow government" consisting of the SDP, National Coalition Party, Left Alliance, Swedish People's Party and the Green League had been in power since April 1995. It had managed to keep Finland's economy growing, to reduce the state's budget deficit and to create jobs, although it had failed to halve the unemployment rate: in 1995, the unemployment had been 15.4% and in 1999, it still stood at 10.2%. This was, as the governing parties pointed out, still a better record than the previous centre-right government's performance; during its term between 1991 and 1995, the unemployment had risen from 6.6% to 15.4%.

The largest opposition party, the Centre Party, tried to become the largest party overall, and to re-join the government. They called for labour reform, which they claimed would make it easier for employers to hire new employees and for small enterprises to operate. Finland's largest labour unions rejected the proposed work reform, claiming that it would reduce the employees' job security and would excessively increase the employers' power. The Centrists also accused the government of not improving the Finnish economy enough, and of not slowing down sufficiently the large internal migration of Finns from the rural towns and small cities to the large economic growth centres, like the Helsinki and Tampere regions.


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