Centre Party

The Centre Party (Finnish: Suomen Keskusta [ˈsuo̯men ˈkeskustɑ], Kesk; Swedish: Centern i Finland, C), officially the Centre Party of Finland, is an agrarian political party in Finland. Ideologically, the Centre Party is positioned in the centre of the political spectrum. It has been described as being liberal. The party’s leader is Antti Kaikkonen, who was elected in June 2024 to succeed former minister Annika Saarikko. As of June 2023, the party has been a part of the parliamentary opposition.

Founded in 1906 as the Agrarian League (Finnish: Maalaisliitto; Swedish: Agrarförbundet), the party represented rural communities and supported the decentralisation of political power from Helsinki. In the 1920s, the party emerged as the main rival to the SDP. Kyösti Kallio, the party's first prime minister, held the office for four times between 1922 and 1937. After World War II, the party settled as one of the four major political parties in Finland, alongside the SDP, the National Coalition Party and the Finnish People's Democratic League until the 1980s. Urho Kekkonen served as President of Finland from 1956 to 1982, by far the longest period of any president. The name Centre Party was adopted in 1965 and Centre of Finland in 1988. The Centre Party was the largest party in Parliament from 2003 to 2011, during which time Matti Vanhanen was prime minister for seven years. By 2011, the party was reduced in parliamentary representation from the largest party to the fourth largest, but it reclaimed its status as the largest party in 2015. In 2019, it suffered a considerable defeat, losing 18 of 49 seats.