Agrarian parties of Finland were and their successors are a typical part of the development in the Nordic countries, which has been based on milk production in distant and relatively sparsely populated areas. The state support for small peasants was one of the essential economic reforms in the newly independent Finland just after the declaration of independence in 1917 and fierce civil war of 1918. Already in 1917 the land reform, which had been discussed for more than ten years seriously in the parliament was executed. The tendency toward increasing small farming continued in various other reforms like Lex Kallio, which made it possible for the small peasants to achieve more lands. This made parliamentary life fragile in Finland as the reforms created mistrust between the Agrarian League lea mainly by Kyösti Kallio and the National Coalition party (National Coalition since 1951), which favoured bigger land-owners. Between the world wars strong agrarian movements were not only in the Nordic countries, but also in Bulgaria.
Compared to continental Europe, the peasants in the Nordic countries historically had an unparalleled degree of political influence, being not only independent but also represented as the fourth estate in the national diets, like in the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates. The agrarian movement thus precedes the labour movement by centuries in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway.
The first of the parties, Venstre in Denmark, was formed as a liberal, anti-tax farmers' party in 1870. The rest of the parties emerged in the early 20th century, spurred by the introduction of universal suffrage and proportional representation across the region.[2] Finland's Centre Party was the first to be created in 1906, followed by the Centre Party in Norway in 1915. Sweden's Centre Party, founded in 1921, emerged from the existing Lantmanna Party, and its splinter groups.[2]
Disputes between Urho Kekkonen and Veikko Vennamo concerning Kekkonen's the re-election as the president of Finland without normal presidential election for the years 1974-1980 and opposing the special law to avoid elections and make possible an extra term for the years 1974-1978 to avoid heated political debate because of CSCE.
Vapaan Suomen Liitto 1994-2004 Itsenäisyyspuolue Vapaan Suomen Liitto 2004-2006 Itsenäisyyspuolue 2006
Disputes between Keijo Korhonen's supporters for the president of Finland in the presidential elections not accepting the idea, that the Centre Party would accept the negotiations of the EU membership for Finland and the supporters of the negotiations and the presidential elections candidate Paavo Väyrynen, who resigned from the post of the minister for foreign affairs of Finland during the negotiations starting oppose the EU membership as he considered the conditions granted by the EU too un favourable for Finland. The Independence Party criticizes more the Portugal and Greece bailout of the EMU crises than Sauli Niinistö or Jyrki Katainen has done. The party wants Finland to achieve the same EES status as the EFTA countries Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein has and which Finland had before joining the EU in 1995.
The party established after the bankruptcy of The Rural Party of Finland in sauna in Kalmari of Saarijärvi by the idea four remaining officials of the foregone party: Timo Soini, Raimo Vistbacka and two others. The collecting of 5 000 supporters' underwritings started with remained 300 or 400 supporters of the party.
Disputes between the supporters of the Rural Party of Finland, traditional supporters of the Centre Party in Finland just like the supporters of Independence Party against the centric liberals within the Centre Party in Finland favouring or accepting like the eurocentric Social Democrates and liberal Coalition party supporters the deepening Western integration on the basis of the Lisbon Treauty and EMU stabilisation mechanism. Timo Soini accepts the NATO membership as the party majority does not due to the worry, that international activities outside the NATO charter would ruin the large land forces of the reserve army making non-alliance impossible.
The second split happened in the late 1950s as Finland started to industrialise strongly setting the national target, the Swedish model. A member of the Agrarian league, Veikko Vennamo, established the Small Peasants' Party of Finland in 1959, which got three substantial victories in 1970, also in 1972 and 1983. After 1970 elections, the chairman of the Centre Party (Agrarian League 1908-1965) Johannes Virolainen declared, that the Center Party has to come back to aitovierille (the country field fence sides) and thus take seriously the agricultural matters and country side. This led to the hardened national agricultural policies and regional policies which made escape from the country side to cities and Sweden to work slower. The Centre Party succeeded in 1972 destroying the strong mandate of The Rural Party of Finland by promoting the possibility to take the party state subsidies to a new party, the |Party of the Unity of the Finnish People.
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Esaiasson, Peter; Heidar, Knut (1999). Beyond Westminster and Congress: the Nordic experience. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. ISBN978-0-8142-0839-7.
Hilson, Mary (2008). The Nordic model. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN978-1-86189-366-6.
Arter, David (2001). From Farmyard to City Square?: the Electoral Adaptation of the Nordic Agrarian Parties. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN978-0-7546-2084-6.
Cotta, Maurizio; Best, Heinrich (2007). Democratic Representation in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-923420-2.
Siaroff, Alan (2000). Comparative European party systems: an analysis of parliamentary elections. London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN978-0-8153-2930-5.
