Finnish local elections, 9th April 2017

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

http://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/useyourvote_join_the_yle_news_local_election_debate/9519786

There will be an English language debate tomorrow, if you are interested in municipal politics of Finland.

The election itself will probably not have too many drastic swings - the decline of PS will probably be less obvious, as PS had a pretty mediocre set of results last time anyway.

Helsinki is obviously the one most people will be paying attention to, and it has adopted a partisan mayor system; the Green League and National Coalition Party will fight to get the top dog.

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

This is so nice.

[Diouf]

Gallup poll from February/March.

Tight three-way battle for first between Social Democrats, Centre Party and NCP. Significant progress for the Greens, while the Finns Party slide back. The Left Alliance also increases a bit, while the Swedish People's Party and Christian Democrats are stable compared to 2012.

[Helsinkian]

Three new parties are making their debut in this election:

- Feminist Party (modelled after the Swedish Feminist Initative)
- Animal Rights Party (kind of like the Dutch Party)
- Liberal Party – Freedom to Chooce (not related to the older Liberal Party; this one was first registered as the "Whisky Party", critical of alcohol regulations, but then changed its name right after getting party status.)

Helsinki has 1,084 candidates running for the city's 85 council seats.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Who would be the audience of an English language debate in Finland?

[Helsinkian]

Who would be the audience of an English language debate in Finland?

In municipal elections, citizens of other EU countries living in Finland also have the right to vote, as do other foreigners if they have lived in Finland for two years or more.

[Helsinkian]

This graphic was produced by the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat based on the parties' candidates' answers on HS's voting aid application. The parties are, in order, Centre, National Coalition Party, Finns Party, Social Democratic, Greens, Left Alliance, Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats.

Vasemmisto = Left-wing
Oikeisto = Right-wing
Konservatiivi = Conservative
Liberaali = Liberal

In this case the Left/Right divide deals with economic issues, while the Conservative/Liberal divide refers to social issues.

It's interesting that the Centre Party lives up to its name here. If it were counting only the answers of the party elite, it would probably be on the Right-wing side.

[BundouYMB]

Is there a story behind the lone SDP dot in the top right?

[Helsinkian]

Is there a story behind the lone SDP dot in the top right?

I tried to look but didn't find the entire data set behind the graphic. In any case, in local elections the party lists are so large that the parties don't always require total ideological purity from the candidates.

[Helsinkian]

Probably the last poll before the election. There's a good chance that no party reaches 20%.

[DavidB.]

Who will you be voting for, Helsinkian?

[Helsinkian]

I've always voted for the Finns Party (I'm 28), and will do so this time as well, even though I'm not entirely impressed by their performance in government.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Who are you supporting in the PS leadership election?

[Helsinkian]

Who are you supporting in the PS leadership election?

Undecided; I've voted for both Halla-aho and Terho in past elections. Halla-aho would drive a harder line on immigration (which is a topic I care about) but I feel Terho is more charismatic as a leader and thus might have a better chance at restoring the party's popularity. Also, Halla-aho has said that if he's elected as leader he would stay in Brussels for the next two years (until the next parliamentary election), and I'm not sure you can lead a party that is in government in that way.

[DavidB.]

Excellent party choice, and while I'm highly inclined to support Halla-aho on ideological grounds, the charisma argument does sound like a point in Terho's favor and for Halla-aho to stay in Brussels sounds like a very bad idea.

[Helsinkian]

Projection of the Finnish public broadcaster YLE:

NCP 20.4%
SDP 19.2%
Centre 17.6%
Greens 13.6%
Left Alliance 8.9%
Finns Party 8.2%
SPP 4.9%
CD 4.1%
Others 3.2%

Biggest winner here are the Greens, the biggest losers are the Finns Party.

[rob in cal]

  Helsinkian, why did the Finns Party do so poorly.  Is it something to do with their role in the national government?

[Helsinkian]

With almost all the votes counted All the votes counted:

National Coalition Party 20.7%
Social Democratic Party 19.4%
Centre Party 17.5%
Green League 12.4%
Finns Party 8.8%
Left Alliance 8.8%
Swedish People's Party 4.9%
Christian Democrats 4.1%
https://vaalit.yle.fi/results/kv2017

Composition of the Helsinki City Council:

National Coalition Party 25 seats
Green League 21
Social Democratic Party 12
Left Alliance 10
Finns Party 6
Swedish People's Party 5
Centre Party 2
Christian Democrats 2
Feminist Party 1
Pirate Party 1

[Helsinkian]

 Helsinkian, why did the Finns Party do so poorly.  Is it something to do with their role in the national government?

It definitely has a lot to do with that. Working class voters who were disappointed with the government's austerity policies went back to the Social Democrats, and some of the voters who were disappointed that the party did not do more to stop the inflow of asylum seekers did not vote.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

So I'm guessing a Green mayor in a Green-SDP-Left coalition?

[Helsinkian]

So I'm guessing a Green mayor in a Green-SDP-Left coalition?

Regarding the mayor, before the election the parties had a "gentlemens' agreement" to elect the candidate of the largest party as mayor. So that would be Jan Vapaavuori of the National Coalition Party, assuming that the parties hold on to the deal.

Finnish municipal councils usually don't work on the formal lines of coalition and opposition. Instead it has been the tradition that all the major parties get seats in the city executive (which corresponds to a "cabinet" and is led by the mayor) in proportion to their support.

[Aboa]

Greens have also been historically pretty willing to make compromises with NCP on policy.

[Zanas]

Any other results from large municipalities that are relevant ? Or a few Easter eggs ?

[DavidB.]

Any other results from large municipalities that are relevant ? Or a few Easter eggs ?

It's all on the site Helsinkian posted.

[Helsinkian]

One noteworthy result is that the Greens became the largest party in Jyväskylä, a city in Central Finland. That part of the country is not in general favourable to the Greens but Jyväskylä has a university and thus a large student population.