The Green League of Finland

HISTORY - AND HER STORY

The roots of the Finnish Greens as a political movement go back to the direct action tradition of the late 1970's when a growing awareness of the deterioration of the state of the enviroment found a counterpart in movements promoting alternative ideas in social policy and rejuvenating grassroots democracy.

The Finnish Greens first took part in parliamentary elections in 1983, running a handful of independent candidates. Contrary to the most forecasts, two Green MP's were elected. In the 1987 elections the number of the Green MP's were doubled to four. The total amount of MP's is two hundred. In the local elections of 1984 and 1988 the Green candidates still ran as independents, gaining council seats mainly in the larger cities.

Vihreä liitto was finally registered as a political party in 1988 after a lengthy debate about the pros and cons of a more fromal organisation. The first comprehensive Green Manifesto was drafted and approved in 1990 and the succesful 1991 parliamentary elections brought the number of the Green MP's to 10 with 6,8 % of the total vote. The upward trend continued in the 1992 local elections. Vihreä liitto won 343 council seats with 6,9 % of the vote.

In the parliamentary elections of 1995 the Greens managed to lose one seat the result being 6,5 % of the vote. After the goverment talks were completed the Greens found themselves holding one seat in the new broadly based "rainbow government" (Social Democrats, Conservatives, Left Alliance, Swedish Peoples Party, Greens). The position - the Ministry of Enviroment and Development Co-operation - went to Pekka Haavisto.

In the parliamentary elections in 1999 ([More]) the Green League got 11 seats (7,3 %). The rainbow government continued and the Greens got "one and a half" ministers. Satu Hassi became the new Minister of Environment and Osmo Soininvaara got half a period (2 years) as a Minister of Basic Services. However, in May 2002 Green League deceided to leave the government due to the Parliament's decision to accept the fifth nuclear power plant. [Read more]

ORGANIZATION AND FINANCES

The party structure is based on regional and national Green associations which send delegates to the annual party congress. The party congress elects a chairperson, three deputy chairs and eight members of the executive committee and a party secretary, who are responsible for everyday politics of Vihreä liitto. The congress also elects the party council which has 30 to 40 members (35 at present).

The party employs six people in its Helsinki headquaters. The biggest local associations employ part-time organizers, but most of the local work is unpaid. The parliamentary group employs full-time collaborators whose salaries are paid by the state.

Vihreä liitto is mainly financed by the Finnish state through the party subsidy law: for each MP, all registered parties recieve about 50 000 euro per annum. The 1 700 members pay a small membership fee, and local councillors and committee members give up pergentace of their meeting fees for their local groups.

Like other parties, Vihreä liitto recieves an additional state grant for financial support of a newspaper of periodical party choice. Vihreä liitto has allocated this money to the weekly paper Vihreä Lanka from the beginning. The circulation of the paper is about 3500.

FINNISH GREENS IN PARLIAMENT AND IN GOVERNMENT (not updated)

In the 1995 parliamentary elections, Greens got 9 seats in the Finnish Parliament. After the elections, a broadly-based "rainbow"-government was formed, and the seat of the Minister of Enviroment is held by former Green party chair and MP, Pekka Haavisto.

In its programme Mr. Paavo Lipponen's goverment calls itself "The goverment of Employment and Joint Responsibility". The goverment's objective is to halve unemployment in Finland by the year 2000 (the unemployment rate is now 17,1 per cent), and meet the convergence criteria of the EMU, as well as to change the taxation system so thet the burden of the taxation would be shifted from work to the enviroment.

The Greens face a great challenge in the tax reform, because reducing the income tax without simultaneously increasing the taxes on energy and enviromentally harmful emissions would cause an even greater pressure on the welfare society already at stake.

The internal debate in Vihreä liitto mainly concerned issues related to environmental protection, especially in the context of the reform of the Nature Conservation Act and the forest legislation, and cuts in social security.

LOCAL COUNCILS

In local elections, Greens took part as independents until 1988 with some success mostly in the larger cities and towns. After a setback in 1988, the 1992 elections propelled Vihreä liitto into established position at the local level with 6.9 per cent of the national vote. The local elections held in October 1996 gave the Greens 291 seats in local councils and 6.3 per cent of the vote.

In the local elections in 2000 the number of green councillors increased to 338. 59 % of the Green councillors are women.

This local level breakthrough has changed the nature of the Green politics in Finland by comitting most Green activists into local decision-making as members of executive boards, councils and committees which tend to consume a lot of energy and time.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Vihreä liitto joined the then European Green Coordination in 1989 and has been an active member since. Pekka Sauri is the present co-spokesperson of the Federation of European Green Parties which was established in Kirkkonummi, Finland in June 1993. The present delegates for Green League in the Federation are party secretary Ari Heikkinen ja Johanna Sumuvuori. Two Finns are elected to the committee of the Federation: Pekka Haavisto is the co-spokesperson of the Federation and Outi Hannula is the treasurer.

International affairs in the party are managed by the International working group in cooperation with the Executive committee. Finns hold 16 seats in the European Parliament. The Greens' representatives are Uma Aaltonen and Matti Wuori.

In Europe-policy Vihreä liitto wants to emphazize openness and democracy. Transparency and publicity must be strongly increased in the decision-making bodies of the EU. Finnish Greens support the expansion of the EU towards Central and Eastern Europe which will strenghten the security of the whole Europe.

Permanently high levels of unemployment are the major threat to European societies. At the same time the public sector is struggling with serious economic problems partly as a result of recent recession, partly due to the efforts of the member countiries to fulfill the strict EMU criteria too quickly. Vihreä liitto is calling for a European Tax Reform in which taxation of consumption of energy and raw material is progressively increased and correspondingly, taxation of work and labour-related costs are reduced.