Centre Party (Finland)

Centre Party (Finland)

The Centre Party (Finnish: Suomen Keskusta, Kesk; Swedish: Centern i Finland) is a centrist, agrarian, and liberal political party in Finland. It is one of the four largest political parties in the country, along with the National Coalition Party, the Social Democratic Party and The Finns Party, and currently has 35 seats in the Finnish Parliament. The Centre Party chairman is Juha Sipilä, who was elected in June 2012 to follow Mari Kiviniemi, the ex-Prime Minister of Finland.

Founded in 1908 as the Agrarian League, the party represented rural communities and supported decentralisation of political power from Helsinki. In the 1920s, the party emerged as the main rivals to the Social Democratic Party, and the party's first Prime Minister, Kyösti Kallio, held the office four times between 1922 and 1937. After World War II, the party settled as one of the four major political parties in Finland. Urho Kekkonen served as President of Finland from 1956 to 1982: by far the longest period of any President. The name 'Centre Party' was adopted in 1965, and 'Centre of Finland' in 1988. The Centre Party was the largest party in Parliament from 2003 to 2011, during which time Matti Vanhanen was Prime Minister for seven years. Following the 2011 election, the party was reduced in parliamentary representation from the largest party to the fourth largest.

The Centre Party's political influence is greatest in small and rural municipalities, where it often holds a majority of the seats in the municipal councils. Decentralisation is the policy that is most characteristic of the Centre Party. The Centre has been the ruling party in Finland number of times since Finnish independence. 12 of the Prime Ministers of Finland, three of the Presidents and the current European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs have been from the party. The Finnish Centre Party is the mother organisation of Finnish Centre Youth, Finnish Centre Students, and Finnish Centre Women.