Parliamentary elections were held in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 on 1 and 2 July 1948.

Background

The political atmosphere during the July 1948 Finnish parliamentary elections was heated. Many Finns across the party lines believed that the Communists and People's Democrats had pursued their goal of making Finland a solidly left-wing country too vigorously. They had even held the Prime Ministership since March 1946, with Mr. Mauno Pekkala serving in that position. They had organized many mass meetings, demanded the dismissal of "reactionary" (especially right-wing) civil servants and claimed that the Finnish government had to adopt even a friendlier relationship with the Soviet Union. They had vigorously supported the imprisonment of eight former top politicians, including former President Ryti, for "war guilt" (making decisions that resulted in the Continuation War of 1941 to 1944 between Finland, the Soviet Union and Germany). In the spring of 1948, there were even unproven rumours of an imminent coup attempt by the Finnish Communists. Some Finnish war veterans condemned the Communist Interior Minister Yrjö Leino for deporting to the Soviet Union Ingrian Finns, East Karelians and Estonians who had bravely fought in the Finnish army during the Continuation War. The controversy over the treatment of these "prisoners of Leino" forced Leino to resign in May 1948. The Social Democrats declared in their election slogan: "Enough Already: Price Hikes, Lying Promises, Opinion Terror and Forced Democracy." The Agrarians wrote in their election slogan: "On These Leans the Agrarian Union" under the Bible and the Finnish law. The National Coalitioners declared simply: "Be Free." These traditional democratic parties gained a total of 16 deputies in the election, while the Communists lost 11, compared to the 1945 election. After the election, the Finnish politics began to stabilize. For example the United States appreciated Finland's desire to remain a Western democracy, despite its close relationship with the Soviet Union, symbolized by the Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (FCMA) Treaty, which was signed in April 1948. After these parliamentary elections, the Social Democrats formed a minority government under Prime Minister Karl-August Fagerholm. They did not want to form a government with the Agrarians, claimed the late veteran Agrarian-Centrist politician Johannes Virolainen, because they feared that they would lose votes to the Communists in the next election. The Agrarians quietly supported Fagerholm's government.

Results

Turnout	78.2%	+3.3

party	seats		votes
			proportion		amount
Social Democratic Party of Finland Social Democratic Party of Finland The Social Democratic Party of Finland is one of the three major political parties in Finland, along with the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party. Jutta Urpilainen is the current SDP leader. The party has been in the Finnish government cabinet for long periods and has set many...	54	+4	26.32%	+1.2	494,719	+68,771
Agrarian League Centre Party (Finland) The Centre Party is a centrist and Nordic agrarian political party in Finland. It is one of the four largest political parties in the country, along with the Social Democratic Party , the National Coalition Party and the True Finns , and currently has 35 seats in the Finnish Parliament...	56	+7	24.24%	+2.9	455,635	+92,973
Finnish People's Democratic League Finnish People's Democratic League Finnish People's Democratic League was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Party...	38	−11	19.98%	−3.5	375,538	−23,080
National Coalition Party National Coalition Party (Finland) The National Coalition Party is a liberal conservative political party in Finland founded in 1918.The National Coalition Party is one of the four largest parties in Finland, along with the Social Democratic Party, the Centre Party and the True Finns...	33	+5	17.04%	+2.0	320,366	+64,972
Swedish People's Party	13	−1	7.34%	−0.6	137,981	+3,875
National Progressive Party National Progressive Party (Finland) The National Progressive Party was a liberal political party in Finland from 1918 to 1951. The party was founded December 8 1918, after the Finnish Civil War, by the republican majority of the Young Finnish Party and the republican minority of the Finnish Party...	5	−4	3.91%	−1.3	73,444	−14,424
Åländsk Samling	1	–	0.35%	–	6,567	–
Smallholders' Party Small Farmers Party Party of Smallholders and Rural People , later renamed as the Small Farmers Party , was a political party in Finland. The party was founded in Seinäjoki on December 20, 1936, through the unification of Smallholders' Party of Finland , People's Party and Central League of Recession Committees...			0.29%	−0.9	5,378	−14,683
Radical People's Party Radical People's Party (Finland) Radical People's Party was a Finnish populist political party led by Ernesti Hentunen. The party was active in the 1940s and 1950s and it was strongly personified by its eccentric chairman. The Radicals participated three times in the parliamentary elections and once in the municipal elections....			0.27%	+0.2	5,162	+3,539
Others			0.28%	+0.1	5,178	+1,274
Total	200	--	100%		1,879,968	+181,592
Source: Tilastokeskus 2004