Keskusta

The Centre Party (in Finnish: Suomen Keskusta, Kesk., in Swedish: Centern i Finland) is a centrist political party in Finland. It is one of the three largest political parties in the country, along with the Social Democrats (SDP) and the National Coalition Party. Currently the Centre Party has the most seats, 51 out of 200, in the Finnish Parliament (2007) and its chairman Matti Vanhanen is Prime Minister.

Finnish Centre Party is a morther organisation for Finnish Centre Youth, Finnish Centre Women and Finnish Centre Students and for some smaller political organisations in Finland.

Its political influence is greatest in small and rural municipalities, where it often holds a majority of the seats in the municipal councils. Decentralization is the policy that is most characteristic of the Centre Party.

STANCE

The party is a member of the Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and subscribes to the liberal manifestos of these organisations. Its members in the European Parliament are members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

Despite belonging to the Liberal International, the Centre Party does not play quite the same role in Finnish politics as do Liberal parties in other countries because it evolved from an Agrarian Party. In Finland, there is no large party that supports liberalism per se. Instead, liberalism is found in most major parties including the Centre Party, which supports decentralization, free will, free and fair trade, and small enterprise. The Centre Party characteristically supports decentralization, particularly populating the country evenly and subsidizing agriculture.

One of the major differences between the Finnish Centre and other parties has been its large number of members; hundreds of thousands of Finnish people are members of the party. In recent years, the party has gained many immigrant members as well.

Throughout the period of Finland's independence the Centre Party has been the party most often represented in the government. The country's longest-serving president, the Great Urho Kekkonen, was from the party.

Today, only a small portion (about 5%) of the votes given to the party come from farmers and the Centre Party draws support from a wide range of professions. However, even today rural Finland and small towns form the strongest base of support for the party, although it has worked toward making a breakthrough in the major southern cities as well.

HISTORY

The party was founded in 1906 as a movement of citizens in the Finnish countryside. Before Finnish independence, political power in Finland was centralized in the capital and to the estates of the realm. The centralization gave space for a new political movement. In 1906 were founded two agrarian movements which in 1908 merged into one political party: the Agrarian League or Maalaisliitto. An older, related movement was the temperance movement, which had overlapping membership and which gave future Agrarian League activists experience in working in an organization.

From the very beginning of its presence the party has supported the idea of decentralization. At the dawn of Finnish independence the party supported republicanism as opposed to a monarchy backed by conservative social forces.

Soon the ideas of humanity, education, the spirit of the land, peasant-like freedom, decentralization, "the issue of poor people", progressivism, and later the "green wave" became the main political phrases describing the ideology of the party. Santeri Alkio was the most important ideological father of the party. In the 1930s centre forces led the fight against the threatening extreme right-wing movement.

In 1965 the party changed its name to "Centre Party" or Keskustapuolue and in 1988 it took its current name Suomen Keskusta (literally Centre of Finland). Today the importance of humanity and tolerance, social safety and freedom of choice, regional equality, entrepreneurship, ecologically sustainable initiatives, and a decentralised, democratic decision-making process are important values for the Centre Party.

The current chairman, Matti Vanhanen, succeeded as prime minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki, also of the Centre Party.

The party has had since 2004 the only Finnish EU commissioner, Olli Rehn, currently serving as European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs.