Latest Elections
In the 2007 parliamentary election, the party lost eight seats and came third place. The chairman of the largest party, Matti Vanhanen of the Centre Party, was named prime minister, but he selected the second-most popular National Coalition party, the Green League and the Swedish People's Party to the cabinet, leaving the SDP in opposition. The SDP chairman Eero Heinäluoma did not immediately resign as a party chairman, but he did announce his withdrawal from running for party chairman in the next party conference. He was replaced by Jutta Urpilainen. The SDP suffered losses in the 2008 municipal election and the 2009 European election.
In the 2011 parliamentary election the SDP lost three more seats, ending up with 19.1 per cent of the vote and 42 seats, its worst-ever result. However, as the Centre Party lost even more, the Social Democrats came second place after the National Coalition Party, receiving only some 1,500 votes more than the right-wing populist True Finns, who came in third. After lengthy negotiations, a six-party coalition government was formed: the Jyrki Katainen cabinet, with the National Coalition Party and the Social Democrats as its two main parties. The SDP chairman Jutta Urpilainen became finance minister, with National Coalition chairman Jyrki Katainen serving as prime minister.
Read more about this topic: Social Democratic Party Of Finland
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