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 1936.

Background

Finland had clearly recovered from the Great Depression since 1933, and unemployment had been almost eliminated. Prime Minister Kivimäki wanted to continue in office and to broaden his narrow right-wing minority government. The new Finnish economic prosperity, and the growing contacts between leading Agrarians and Social Democrats, made alternatives emerge to the Kivimäki government. For the first time in the history of independent Finland, an Agrarian-Social Democratic government began to be seriously discussed and planned. Despite its noisy and vigorous activity, the far-right Patriotic People's Movement remained small. Under the leadership of J.K. Paasikivi, the National Coalitioners moved towards the political centre, and rejected calls for a new electoral alliance with the Patriotic People's Movement. The election results showed that the Finnish political democracy and its two leading moderate parties, the Social Democrats and Agrarians, had been strengthened. The Depression-based fringe parties, the Finnish Smallholders' Party and the Finnish People's Party, lost most of their seats, while the Patriotic People's Movement remained at fourteen deputies, and the moderate right (National Coalitioners) gained two seats. The divided Progressives (Prime Minister Kivimäki led their right wing, and Professor Cajander led their left wing) lost four seats. Prime Minister Kivimäki was defeated in a confidence vote in September 1936 and resigned in October. Kallio formed a centrist minority government after Svinhufvud refused to allow the Social Democrats to join the government. After Svinhufvud's defeat in the February 1937 presidential election, Kallio took office as the new President in March 1937, and he allowed the Social Democrats, Agrarians and Progressives to form the first centre-left or "red soil" (red for the Social Democrats and "soil" for the Agrarians) Finnish government. Aimo Cajander (Progressive) became Prime Minister, although the real strong men of the government were Finance Minister Väinö Tanner (Social Democrat) and Defence Minister Juho Niukkanen (Agrarian).

Results

Turnout	62.9%	+0.7

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...	83	+5	38.59%	+1.3	452,751	+39,200
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...	53	-	22.41%	−0.1	262,917	+13,159
Swedish People's Party	21	-	11.20%	+0.8	131,440	+16,007
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...	20	+2	10.36%	–a	121,619	–a
Patriotic People's Movement Patriotic People's Movement (Finland) Patriotic People's Movement, abbreviated to IKL), was a Finnish nationalist and anti-communist political party. IKL was the successor of the previously banned Lapuan liike...	14	-	8.34%	–a	97,891	–a
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...	7	−4	6.28%	−1.1	73,654	−8,475
Smallholders' Party of Finland	1	−2	1.97%	−1.4	23,159	−14,385
People's Party People's Party (Finland, 1932) The People's Party was a political party in Finland. It had a populist and peasant-oriented profile. The party was founded in Ylivieska on August 21, 1932 and it was mainly active in Kalajokilaakso region. Yrjö Hautala was the chairman of the party, and Fredrik Rautio the vice chairman...	1	−1	0.63%	−0.2	7,449	−1,941
Others			0.21%	+0.0	2,502	+604
Total	200	--	100%		1,173,382	+65,559
Source: Tilastokeskus 2004; Votes of the People's Party only in print version a Separate votes inside the electoral coalition of National Coalition Party and Patriotic People's Movement in the previous election are not known.