2019 Finnish parliamentary election in the context of "Jussi Halla-aho"

The Centre Party (Finnish: Suomen Keskusta [ˈsuo̯men ˈkeskustɑ], Kesk; Swedish: Centern i Finland, C), officially the Centre Party of Finland, is an agrarian political party in Finland.Ideologically, the Centre Party is positioned in the centre of the political spectrum. It has been described as being liberal and liberal-conservative. The party’s leader is Antti Kaikkonen, who was elected in June 2024 to succeed former minister Annika Saarikko. As of June 2023, the party has been a part of the parliamentary opposition.

Founded in 1906 as the Agrarian League (Finnish: Maalaisliitto; Swedish: Agrarförbundet), the party represented rural communities and supported the decentralisation of political power from Helsinki. In the 1920s, the party emerged as the main rival to the SDP. Kyösti Kallio, the party's first prime minister, held the office for four times between 1922 and 1937. After World War II, the party settled as one of the four major political parties in Finland, alongside the SDP, the National Coalition Party and the Finnish People's Democratic League until the 1980s. Urho Kekkonen served as President of Finland from 1956 to 1982, by far the longest period of any president. The name Centre Party was adopted in 1965 and Centre of Finland in 1988. The Centre Party was the largest party in Parliament from 2003 to 2011, during which time Matti Vanhanen was prime minister for seven years. By 2011, the party was reduced in parliamentary representation from the largest party to the fourth largest, but it reclaimed its status as the largest party in 2015. In 2019, it suffered a considerable defeat, losing 18 of 49 seats.

Pekka Olavi Haavisto (Finnish: [ˈpekːɑ ˈolɑʋi ˈhɑːʋisto]; born 23 March 1958) is a Finnish politician of the Green League who served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2019 to 2023.

Haavisto returned to the Finnish Parliament in the Finnish parliamentary election of March 2007 after an absence of 12 years and was re-elected in 2011, 2015, and 2019. Between April 1995 and April 1999 he was the Minister of Environment in the Lipponen I Cabinet. In October 2013 he was appointed as the Minister for International Development after Heidi Hautala resigned from the job. He has also been a member of the Helsinki City Council.

Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 2 April 2023 to elect members of the Parliament of Finland.

Following the 2019 election, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) formed a governing coalition with the Centre Party, Greens, Left Alliance, and the Swedish People's Party, with Antti Rinne serving as the prime minister of Finland. Later that year, Rinne was involved in a political scandal regarding the Finnish postal service, after which he resigned and was succeeded by Sanna Marin. Marin's government focused on issues regarding climate change, while her government also faced the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The invasion prompted her to announce that Finland would submit its candidacy to join NATO, which it did in May 2022.