contact persons
party profile
current government
election information

Vice-spokespersons

Johanna SUMUVUORI
Jyrki KASVI
Mari PUOSKARI

tanja.remes@gmail.com

Ph: +358 9 5860 4157

Mobile: +358 40 822 1680

Fax: +358 9 5860 4161

Greens in Government

contact:  Sari Sepponen
ph.: +358 10 6048001
Mobile: +358 50 396005
sari.sepponen@mol.fi

Tuja Brax, Minister of Justice
advisors: Kirsi Pimiä & Ari Heikkinen

ari.e.heikkinen@om.fi

ph.:+358 16067520

Oras Tynkkynen, climate policy specialist in the Prime Minister's Office.

tel. +358 40 512 1584

oras.tynkkynen@eduskunta.fi

Parliamentary group

Members of the national parliament

VIHREÄ EDUSKUNTARYHMÄ
Parliament, FIN-00102 Helsinki
Ph: 358 9 432 32 80
Fax: 358 9 432 2717
Contact person: Katja ALVOITTU
katja.alvoittu@eduskunta.fi

Press Officer: Suvi REIJONEN
Ph: 358 50 544 7508
suvi.reijonen@eduskunta.fi

Members in the European Parliament

party profile

Party History

The roots of the Finnish Greens as a political movement go back to the direct action tradition of the late 1970s, when a growing awareness of the deterioration of the state of the environment found a counterpart in movements promoting alternative ideas in social policy and rejuvenating grassroots democracy. Vihreä Liitto was registered as a political party in 1988.

The Finnish Greens took part in parliamentary elections for the first time in 1983, and two Green MPs were elected. At the moment, Greens hold 14 seats (out of 200) in the Parliament.

In the local elections of 1984 and 1988, Green candidates still ran as independents, gaining council seats mainly in larger cities. The local elections of 1992 were a breakthrough for the Greens, and Vihreä Liitto got an established position at the local level. 55% of the Green councillors are women.

In the European elections, the Greens managed to double their seats in June 1999. Our share of the votes-13,4%-was the best result ever for the Finnish Greens in national elections. In January 2000, Vihreä Liitto had their own candidate in the presidential elections for the first time.

Finnish Greens in Parliament and in Government

In the 1999 parliamentary elections, Greens increased their number of seats from 9 to 11 (from 200) in the Finnish Parliament. After the elections the Greens again joined the broadly-based coalition government, which was already in power during the previous legislative period (1995-1999). The other parties in the government were the Social Democratic Party, National Coalition Party (conservative), Left Alliance and the Swedish People's Part. The government's position on new nuclear power plants was left open. Finnish parliament decided about new nuclear plant in May 2002. Decision was positive to nuclear and negative to us. That lead Greens to leave government and we changed our position to be in opposition

Parliament Elections in Finland in March 2003 gave us three new seats in Parliament, from 11 to 14 (from 200). The result was good for us, even though our expectations before elections were a little bit higher. The reason why we didn't get more seats was really the hard campaign against us about the soft-drug issue and the way how the two biggest parties, Finnish Centre and Social Democrats turned elections to be Prime Minister elections, saying that people should choose the next prime minister by voting either Centre or Social Democrats. That lead to a situation where all other major parties expected we lost. Our good result in elections didn't help us to get into the government and the Government in Finland is now based on three parties, there are both the Finnish Centre Party and the Social Democratic Party and the third is Swedish People's Party, a party that has always been in Government.

Local Councils

The overall result of the Greens in the local elections of October 2000 was good, 7,7% of the votes (6,3% in 1996). There was growing success in most parts of the country, especially in the regional centres. In Helsinki, the Greens got a record-breaking result of 23,5% (18,4% in 1996). This means that the Greens became the second biggest political group in the city council after the conservatives (29%)- leaving behind the social democrats with 20,4% of votes.

Grassroot democracy and maintaining local services are important goals for the Greens. The communities must be planned and built in an ecologically sustainable way, e.g. to reduce the need for excessive transport. Other green goals are:

• Regional councils should be elected directly, not by local councils
• Promoting public transport
• Promoting voluntary co-operation between municipalities, e.g. in health care, town planning, education, transport

 Position paper Finnish Greens:

 The Basic Income Model

 current government

Parties Represented in National Parliament:  The Social Democratic Parliamentary Group, Left Alliance, Christian Democratic Parliamentary Group, True Finns Party

 election information