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Europe

Finland
Last reviewed: 21 May 2009

Country information

POLITICS

Finland is a Republic whose Constitution combines a 1-chamber Parliament with a President who shares executive powers with the government in foreign policy and defence. The President is elected for a 6-year term by direct popular vote. Tarja Halonen, the country's first female President, was inaugurated in March 2000 and was re-elected in January 2006. She was formerly the Social Democrat Foreign Minister.

There are 200 members of Parliament and elections (proportional representation) take place every 4 years. Elections were held on 18 March 2007. The Centre Party emerged as the largest party, followed closely by the National Coalition Party.

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen’s (Centre) second Cabinet took office on 19 April 2007. The present Cabinet is a majority cabinet formed by the Centre Party, the National Coalition Party, the Green League and the Swedish People’s Party of Finland. The Cabinet has a total of 20 ministers. In the ministerial roles, the Centre Party and the National Coalition share 8 positions, and the Green Party and the Swedish People’s Party have 2 each. Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Stubb, represents the National Coalition Party.

In the last European Parliamentary elections (2004) the Conservatives won the largest share of votes, closely followed by the Centre Party and SDP. The results meant the following distribution of MEP seats:

National Coalition Party (Group of the European People's Party):4
Centre Party (European Liberal Democrats): 4
Social Democratic Party (Socialist Group): 3
Green League (Group of the Greens):
Left Alliance (European United Left): 1
Swedish People's Party (European Liberal Democrats): 1

Dates of next elections: parliamentary elections: March 2011.
Municipal elections: 2012. European Parliamentary elections; Spring 2009.

Country information

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Travel Advice

Travel advice: Finland 

See Also

Useful Links

• BBC Timeline of Finland 
• UK Trade & Investment Country Profile: Finland
• Virtual Finland is a comprehensive website administered by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs with links to government, NGOs and other Finland–related sites.
• The national broadcaster YLE has its own site in English including live Finnish radio and a recorded news summary in English.
• The leading daily newspaper is: Helsingin Sanomat - a Helsinki newspaper that has a wide readership in the rest of Finland.
• Finnish Statistics

Contacts

Copyright 2009 Foreign & Commonwealth Office