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Green League

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The Green League, (Template:Langx Template:IPA, Vihr; Template:Langx Template:IPA; Template:Langx; Template:Langx; Template:Langx) shortened to the Greens, (Template:Langx; Template:Langx)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> is a green political party in Finland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Annesley2013">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Caramani2004">Template:Cite book</ref> Ideologically, the Green League is positioned on the centre-left of the political spectrum.<ref name="Colomer2008">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is a reformist party and it supports feminism, animal rights and green liberalism.<ref name="EU20142">Template:Cite web</ref>

Originally split on whether Finland should join the European Union, the Green League adopted a pro-European stance. It was the first Finnish party in favor of the federalisation of the European Union.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Green League is among the midsized political parties in Finland. The Greens hold thirteen of the 200 seats in the Finnish Parliament and two of Finland's 15 European Parliament seats. The party is a member of the Global Greens and the European Green Party; its MEPs sit in the Greens–European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament.

Founded in 1987, the party absorbed a number of green organizations and their members, electing its first MPs in the 1987 Finnish parliamentary election. The party won ten seats in the 1991 election. Despite small losses in the 1995 election, Pekka Haavisto joined Paavo Lipponen's first cabinet, which was composed of a "rainbow" coalition. This made the Green League the first green party to form a national cabinet. The party remained in government until 2002 when it resigned in opposition to nuclear power. The party slowly rose in popularity between 1995 and 2007, winning a total of 15 seats, and joined the centre-led Vanhanen II cabinet. In the 2011 election, the party suffered significant losses, dropping to ten seats, but remained in government. In 2015, the party recovered its losses, returning to 15 seats. In the 2019 election, the party achieved by far its best-ever result, winning 20 seats and 11.5% of the vote. They became the fifth-largest party in parliament and the third-most-big member of the Rinne cabinet.

After the 2017 municipal elections, the Green League was the fourth-largest party with 534 seats. They gained 211 more seats since the 2012 Finnish municipal elections. Since June 2023, the party's leader and chairperson has been Sofia Virta.<ref>Eduskunta profile</ref> From 2015 to 2019, the party was in opposition. It provided harsh criticism regarding the policies of the conservative Sipilä cabinet on financial support for economically well-off companies, Fortum's purchase of Uniper, and the expedited process of constitution-changing surveillance laws.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

History

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Founding

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The Green League was founded on 28 February 1987 and was registered as a political party the next year. Political activity had begun already in the early 1980s, when environmental activists, feminists, disillusioned young politicians from the marginalized Liberal People's Party and other active groups began to campaign on green issues in Finland. In 1995, it was the first European green party to be part of a state-level cabinet.

The party was founded as a popular movement, which explains its name's descriptor, liitto, "league". Initially, there was much resistance within the movement against founding a political party, motivated by Robert Michels' iron law of oligarchy, which claims that movements inevitably degenerate into oligarchies when they create a formal organization.<ref name="Mickelsson">Rauli Mickelsson. Suomen puolueet - Historia, muutos ja nykypäivä. Vastapaino 2007, 429 pages.</ref> The party still stresses openness and democratic decision-making, even if the Finnish word, "liitto", has been dropped from the party's website and advertisements, the word still remains in its official and registered name.

Early activities (1983–1994)

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The first two parliamentary representatives were elected even before the registration, in the 1983 parliamentary election. These were the first independent representatives in the Finnish Parliament. In 1987 the number of seats rose to four, and in 1991 to a total of ten.

About half of the party's members were against Finland joining the European Union in 1994. Later, polls showed that most Greens were anti-Eurozone.<ref name="euroopanunionissa">Template:Cite web</ref> The party heads declined to fight against euro-adoption.

As part of the Lipponen Cabinets (1995–2003)

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In the 1995 election, the Green League received a total of nine seats out of 200. The party joined the coalition cabinet led by the Social Democratic Party, and Pekka Haavisto became the Minister of the Environment,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> thus becoming the first green minister in Europe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Green League received 7.3% of the vote, and gained two additional seats in the 1999 election, raising the total to 11. The Greens continued in the next coalition cabinet, but resigned in protest on 26 May 2002, after the cabinet's decision to allow the construction of a new nuclear plant was accepted by the parliament.

Growth to mainstream appeal (2003–present)

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In 2003, the Green League received 8.0% of the vote, receiving a total of 14 seats. They increased their seats to 15 in the 2007 election while receiving 8.5% of the vote. In the 2011 election, the party lost five seats.

In the 2009 European Parliament elections, the Greens gained two of the thirteen Finnish seats in the European Parliament, which were occupied by Satu Hassi and Heidi Hautala.

At the municipal level, the Greens are an important force in the politics of the main cities of Finland. In the municipal election of 2008 the Greens received 8.9% of the vote; the vote share was considerably higher in Helsinki, where the Greens became the second-largest party with 23.2% of the vote.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In several other cities, the Greens achieved the position of the third-largest party. The Greens are weaker in rural area and especially in municipalities that experience high levels of outward migration.

By the 2017 Green League party congress, Niinistö had served three full two-year terms as the chairman and stepped down according to the rules of the party. In the following leadership election, there were six candidates running for party chairman, of whom MP Touko Aalto won the election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Soon after Aalto's election, the popularity of the Green League surged in the polls and raised briefly as the second most popular party in the country.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, in September 2017 the poll numbers turned into a downward slope, which continued until autumn 2018.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After taking a month of sick leave due to exhaustion in September 2018, Aalto soon announced that he was resigning from his post, citing depression and fatigue.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In November 2018, the Green League decided to choose a temporary chairman to lead the party into the 2019 parliamentary elections and until the next party convention. In the leadership election, former chairman Pekka Haavisto was once again elected as chairman.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In June 2019, Haavisto stepped down as the chairman of the party. Maria Ohisalo was the only candidate in the leadership election and was thus elected as chairman in the city of Pori.<ref name=ohisalo>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the 2023 parliamentary election, Ohisalo was re-elected with 6,937 votes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, as the Greens suffered an election defeat, Ohisalo announced that she would not seek another term as chairman. In June 2023, she was replaced by Sofia Virta.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ideology and policies

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File:Vihreiden vaaliteltta Isolla Roballa.jpg
An election canvassing tent for the Greens on Iso Roobertinkatu in Helsinki in 2011.
File:Green League at Helsinki Pride 2023.jpg
Members of the Finnish Green League party at the Helsinki Pride 2023 parade.

The Green League is no longer a protest party, nor an alternative movement. Some Green candidates reject classifying the party as either left-wing or right-wing. Economic opinions of the members range between left and right.<ref name="Mickelsson"/> However, members of the party on average place their party left of the Social Democratic Party and right of the Left Alliance.<ref>Elo, Kimmo – Rapeli, Lauri (2008): Suomalaisten politiikkatietämys. Template:Webarchive Oikeusministeriön julkaisuja 2008:6.</ref>

The party is one of the strongest proponents for same-sex marriage. The party is also distinct in its opposition against universal male conscription and wants to opt for a gender-neutral, selective version. The eventual goal of the Greens is voluntary military service.

In 2015, the party included universal basic income (UBI) as a proposal in their platform.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In February 2019, the party announced that it wanted to introduce a €300 universal basic income in the 2019 to 2023 parliamentary term, before transitioning to a €600 tax-free UBI during the following 2023 to 2027 parliamentary term.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the spring of 2018, the party proposed lowering the voting age to 15.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The party stated in December 2018 that it supports investing €10 billion in Finland's railway infrastructure and improving rail connections in the country, including building high-speed rail connections.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In September 2021, the party voted to pass an internal motion supporting the legalisation and regulation of cannabis in Finland. It thus became the first party in Finland's Parliament to publicly state support for cannabis being legalised in the country.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Election results

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Parliamentary elections

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bar:% color:SB width:22   mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S
bar:1983 from:start till:1.47 text:1.5
bar:1987 from:start till:4.03 text:4.0
bar:1991 from:start till:6.82 text:6.8
bar:1995 from:start till:6.52 text:6.5
bar:1999 from:start till:7.27 text:7.3
bar:2003 from:start till:8.01 text:8.0
bar:2007 from:start till:8.46 text:8.5
bar:2011 from:start till:7.25 text:7.3
bar:2015 from:start till:8.53 text:8.5
bar:2019 from:start till:11.5 text:11.5
bar:2023 from:start till:7.04 text:7.0

</timeline>

Election Votes % Seats +/- Government
1983 43,754 1.47 Template:Composition bar Template:No2
1987 115,988 4.03 Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 2 Template:No2
1991 185,894 6.82 Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 6 Template:No2
1995 181,198 6.52 Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease 1 Template:Yes2
1999 194,846 7.27 Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 2 Template:Yes2
Template:No2
2003 223,846 8.01 Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 3 Template:No2
2007 234,429 8.46 Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 1 Template:Yes2
2011 213,172 7.25 Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease 5 Template:Yes2
Template:No2
2015 253,102 8.53 Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 5 Template:No2
2019 354,194 11.49 Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 5 Template:Yes2
2023 217,426 7.03 Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease 7 Template:No2

Municipal elections

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bar:1984 from:start till:2.8 text:2.8
bar:1988 from:start till:2.3 text:2.3
bar:1992 from:start till:6.9 text:6.9
bar:1996 from:start till:6.3 text:6.3
bar:2000 from:start till:7.7 text:7.7
bar:2004 from:start till:7.4 text:7.4
bar:2008 from:start till:8.9 text:8.9
bar:2012 from:start till:8.5 text:8.5
bar:2017 from:start till:12.5 text:12.5
bar:2021 from:start till:10.6 text:10.6

</timeline>

Election Councillors Votes %
1984 101 76,441 2.8
1988 94 61,581 2.3
1992 343 184,787 6.9
1996 292 149,334 6.3
2000 338 171,707 7.7
2004 313 175,933 7.4
2008 370 228,277 8.9
2012 323 213,100 8.5
2017 534 320,235 12.5
2021 433 259,104 10.6
2025 418 254,172 10.5

European Parliament elections

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bar:1996 from:start till:7.6 text:7.6
bar:1999 from:start till:13.4 text:13.4
bar:2004 from:start till:10.4 text:10.4
bar:2009 from:start till:12.4 text:12.4
bar:2014 from:start till:9.3 text:9.3
bar:2019 from:start till:16.0 text:16.0
bar:2024 from:start till:11.3 text:11.3

</timeline>

Election Votes % Seats +/– EP Group
1996 170,670 7.59 (#5) Template:Composition bar New G
1999 166,786 13.43 (#4) Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 1 G/EFA
2004 172,844 10.43 (#4) Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease 1
2009 206,439 12.40 (#4) Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 1
2014 160,967 9.33 (#5) Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease 1
2019 292,892 16.00 (#2) Template:Composition bar Template:Increase 2
2024 206,332 11.28 (#5) Template:Composition bar Template:Decrease 1

Presidential elections

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Parliamentarian and former MEP Heidi Hautala was a candidate in the presidential elections in 2000 and 2006, taking approximately a 3.5% share of votes in the first round in each. Pekka Haavisto was the first Green candidate in the 2012 election to enter the second round. Haavisto got an 18.8% share of votes in the first round, and lost to centre-right Sauli Niinistö in the second round held on 5 February.

Election Candidate 1st round 2nd round Result
Votes % Votes %
2000 Heidi Hautala 100,740 3.29 (#5) Template:No2
2006 Heidi Hautala 105,248 3.49 (#4) Template:No2
2012 Pekka Haavisto 574,275 18.76 (#2) 1,077,425 37.41 (#2) Template:No2
2018 Pekka Haavisto 370,823 12.40 (#2) Template:No2
2024 Pekka HaavistoTemplate:Efn 836,357 25.80 (#2) 1,476,548 48.38 (#2) Template:No2

Template:Notelist

Politicians

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List of party chairpersons

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Members of parliament from 2019–2023

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The following 20 Greens politicians were elected to the Finnish Parliament in the 2019 parliamentary election. 16 out of 20 members are first-timers. 17 of the members are women.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Current members of the European Parliament

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Since 2024, the Green League has been represented by two MEPs in the European Parliament.

See also

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References

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