The new Finnish Parliament convened last week, with each of its members having spent thousands to earn a seat in the legislature.
Background questions from Yle's election compass reveal that those elected as MPs spent an average of 32,625 euros on campaign expenses. The expenses ranged from a few thousand to almost 200,000 euros.
Out of the 200 MPs elected, 119 answered the election financing question in advance.
More exact data will be available later, as MPs must submit reports on their actual election spending to the National Audit Office by early June.
Annu Perälä, a researcher at the University of Vaasa who has studied election financing, sees the amounts involved in campaign expenses as problematic, even though they have declined slightly in recent years.
Successful candidates in the two previous parliamentary elections had average budgets of around 40,000 euros. According to Perälä, the average cost of election campaigns grew until 2007, but the pace has slowed since then.
"It's quite clear that similar investments are not possible for many people. One could say that this goes against democratic ideals, according to which everyone should be able to participate in politics," said Perälä.
On average, MPs have financed about one third of their campaign budget themselves. The rest of the money typically comes from companies, organisations and individual donors, among others.
Exception to the rule
Some MPs spent far less than average on their electoral campaigns. Many of these were otherwise well-known figures and/or have high profiles on social media.
One of these MPs is Ville Merinen (SDP). His campaign cost 2,300 euros.
“I originally planned not to spend any money at all, but my mother-in-law and father insisted on buying an ad for a bus, so I agreed to that,” Merinen told Yle.
Merinen, a psychotherapist, has over 100,000 followers on TikTok and over 66,000 on Instagram.
Perälä considers MPs like Merinen to be an exception. The reason is that, on average, social media has not reduced the campaign budgets of parliamentary candidates.
"Of course, for individual skilled politicians, social media opens up opportunities to be elected with relatively small budgets. However, the targeted creation of content and followers requires time and skill," she noted.
Using social media can also require a sizeable budget if its content is produced professionally or money is spent to boost visibility, she added.