Last week, union leader Antti Rinne successfully challenged Social Democratic Party chair Jutta Urpilainen on both her domestic and European policies. He captured the leadership seat at a party convention – but only by 14 votes.
Across the European Union, social democratic parties have been gaining ground of late. In the upcoming elections, they are vying with the conservative block for control of the European Parliament. Despite this, the general rise in support has not helped Finland’s SDP. Though it has traditionally been one of the country’s biggest parties, its support level is now languishing around 15 percent. However it remains the second-largest partner in the current five-party coalition government.
Outgoing SDP chair Jutta Urpilainen has led the party for almost six years, and served as finance minister and deputy prime minister for nearly three. Under her leadership, the Finnish SDP has moved slightly to the right in pan-European terms. As finance minister, she drove a hard line on bailouts for troubled eurozone states, in line with the EU’s conservative-bloc politicians.
No longer Finland’s Labour Party?
The SDP has always been a staunch supporter of Finland’s membership in the EU and the common currency. However the EU’s financial crises have raised voices of dissent within the party. Many eurosceptics – especially those who see Finnish jobs at risk – have defected to the Finns Party. Many no longer see the SDP as the workers’ party.
Addressing the party congress in early May, Rinne called for reconsidering terms of loans to financially-strapped eurozone states.
"It’s in no-one’s interest for young people in Greece or other crisis countries to lose their futures, or for elderly people to lose their spots at care facilities, or for us to indefinitely tighten the terms of these loans,” he said. Rinne argues that some of Greece’s debt should be forgiven – in sharp contrast to Urpilainen’s tough stance.
According to their answers provided to Yle’s online election service, SDP candidates strongly support moves to shut down tax havens, impose financial transaction taxes and harmonise EU corporate tax rates. These views are shared by most social democrats in the European Parliament, who are part of the Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group. However those in Strasbourg differ from many of the Finnish candidates in backing EU membership for Turkey and Ukraine.
A New Deal for Europe
Rinne wants a stronger government role in job creation. Rather than austerity, he prefers stimulus to get investment moving. This is in line with the Euro-Parliament’s S&D bloc, which advocates a Progressive Economy Initiative. It calls for more gradual moves to balance state budgets, investments to create jobs in creative sectors and better care for the disadvantaged.
These ideals echo the New Deal instituted by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat who established the Public Works Administration to combat the Great Depression of the 1930s. He instituted massive publicly-funded building projects to create work while controlling agricultural production to raise prices.
The EU has been moving clearly away from such measures during the past decade and a half, when right-leaning parties have led the European Parliament and Commission. A win for SDP candidates across the continent could reverse that trend.
In the run-up to the European Parliament election on May 25, Yle is devoting a full day of coverage to each party across all its platforms and language services. The SDP is in the spotlight on May 14, the first day of advance voting. Citizens of all EU countries are eligible to vote in Finland’s European Parliament election.