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 20 and 21 March 1966.

Background

Prime Minister Johannes Virolainen (Agrarian, since 1965 Centrist) had led a centre-right coalition government since September 1964. Meanwhile, the Social Democratic leader Rafael Paasio had moved the party somewhat more to the left, in order to attract back voters from the Social Democratic opposition. The Finnish society was undergoing radical criticism of the traditional values - Christianity, marriage, parents' authority over their children, teachers' authority over their students, patriotism and civil servants' (including judges') authority over the private citizens. The Social Democrats and Communists tapped into this discontent at the expense of the centre-right parties. At the same time, leading Social Democrats, such as former Social Affairs and Interior Minister Väinö Leskinen, had promised to loyally support President Kekkonen's foreign policy towards the Soviet Union, and his continuance as President. Although the Communists performed quite well in the election, they lost six seats to the Social Democratic opposition, which formed an electoral alliance with the Communists. After the election, Rafael Paasio formed a "popular front" government of the Social Democrats, Centrists, Communists and Social Democratic opposition in May 1966.

Results

Turnout	84.9%	−0.2

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...	55	+17	27.23%	+7.7	645,339	+196,409
Centre Party 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...	49	−4	21.23%	−1.7	503,047	−25,362
Finnish People's Democratic League Finnish People's Democratic League Finnish People's Democratic League was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Party...	41	−6	21.20%	−0.8	502,374	−4,455
National Coalition Party	26	−6	13.79%	−1.3	326,928	−19,710
Liberal People's Party Liberals (Finland) Liberals is a free market liberal party in Finland. Founded in 1965 as a reunification of the People's Party of Finland and Liberal League. Originally named Liberal People's Party , it restyled its name as Liberals in 2000....	9	−5a	6.47%	−0.4a	153,259	−4,746a
Swedish People's Party	11	−2	5.69%	−0.4	134,832	−5,857
Social Democratic Union of Workers and Smallholders	7	+5	2.59%	−1.8	61,274	−39,122
Small Farmers' Party of Finland	1	+1	1.03%	−1.1	24,351	−25,422
Christian League of Finland Christian Democrats (Finland) The Christian Democrats is a Christian democratic political party in Finland. Formerly known as the Finnish Christian League , the Christian Democrats have six seats in the Finnish Parliament and one in the European Parliament.The party was founded in 1958, chiefly from the Christian faction of...			0.45%	–	10,646	–
Åländsk Samling	1	-	0.30%	−0.0	7,118	−143
Independence Party			0.02%	–	513	–
Christian Women of Western Finland			0.01%	–	124	–
Christian-minded of Northern Savonia			0.00%	–	30	–
Write-in lists			0.01%		161
Other persons			0.00%		51
Total	200	-	100%		2,370,046	+68,048
a Compared with the combined result of the People's Party of Finland and the Liberal League. Source: Tilastokeskus 2004; The votes of Write-in lists, Other persons, Independence Party, Christian Women of Western Finland and Christian-minded of Northern Savonia