The Social Democratic Party of Finland (Finnish: Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue, SDP, colloquially demarit; Swedish: Finlands Socialdemokratiska Parti) is one of the four major political parties in Finland, along with the National Coalition Party, The Finns Party and the Centre Party. Jutta Urpilainen is the party's current chairman. The party has been represented in the Finnish cabinet for long periods, and has set many fundamental policies of the Finnish state. The party is currently present in the current cabinet of Jyrki Katainen; the highest-ranking SDP minister is Jutta Urpilainen, the finance minister. The party aims to achieve social democratic goals: a society in which "freedom, equality, solidarity and co-operation thrives in a peaceful and clean environment". The SDP has a close relationship with the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), and is a member of the Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists.
In the early 20th century, the SDP commanded some 40% of the vote, but after the Finnish Civil War of 1918, Communists split from the party to form the Communist Party of Finland. After that, the SDP has usually commanded 20–29% of the total votes in those elections that Communists or their fronts have been allowed to contest. The party has about 59,000 members. Three SDP candidates have been elected as presidents: Mauno Koivisto in 1982 and 1988, Martti Ahtisaari in 1994, and Tarja Halonen in 2000 and 2006, making for an uninterrupted 30-year period of social democratic presidents that ended with the election of Sauli Niinistö in 2012.
In the 2007 parliamentary election, SDP received 21.4 percent of the vote and lost 8 seats. In the 2008 municipal elections, the party continued its decline with the largest drop since 1960. In the latest parliamentary election, in 2011, the party received 19.1 per cent of the vote and lost another three seats, giving it 42 seats, the party's worst result in the history of the Finnish parliament.
Despite the fact that the word sosiaali in modern Finnish has a long a, the name of this party is officially spelt in an old-fashioned way with a short a, for historical reasons.
Read more about Social Democratic Party Of Finland: History, Latest Elections, Prominent Social Democrats, Chairmen, Election Results
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