Left Alliance (Finland)

The Left Alliance (Vasemmistoliitto, Vas; Vänsterförbundet, VF) is a socialist political party in Finland.

The Left Alliance was founded in 1990 as the chief successor of the left-wing Finnish People's Democratic League (SKDL). Although not as electorally successful as the SKDL, it has achieved some success, typically receiving around eight to ten percent of the vote in parliamentary elections. It has participated in five cabinets, most recently in the Marin Cabinet from 2019 to 2023. It is socialist, specifically democratically socialist, and it supports the principles of eco-socialism.

The Left Alliance is a member of the Nordic Green Left Alliance. The party’s newspaper is the monthly Kansan Uutiset. It had two ministerial positions in the Finnish Government led by Sanna Marin, Li Andersson as the Minister of Education and Hanna Sarkkinen as the Minister of Social Affairs and Health.

History
The Left Alliance was founded by the Finnish People's Democratic League (SKDL), the majority of members of the waning Communist Party of Finland (SKP) and the Finnish Women's Democratic League (SNDL). It was later joined by the communist Democratic Alternative. The founding meeting was held in April 1990 in Helsinki, following the publishing of the April Declaration, which stated the party's ideals.

The party's history has been characterised by internal disputes and bickering, as it was formed via people with very different views on society. There have been several defections from the Left Alliance to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the newly formed Communist Party of Finland. In 2005, the party's former secretary and Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions's assistant head Matti Viialainen formed a group to promote a merger between the two largest Finnish left-wing political parties, the Left Alliance and the SDP. This caused an outrage within the Left Alliance, and Viialainen was condemned for wanting to break up the party. Viialainen subsequently left the party and ran for parliament on the SDP ticket in 2007.

In 2006, the party's leader Suvi-Anne Siimes announced her resignation from the post and the party as a result of long-standing feuds with the leftist section of the party. On 13 May 2006, Martti Korhonen was elected as the new party leader. He was followed by Paavo Arhinmäki in June 2009, following the party's bad performance in the 2009 EU parliamentary election, in which the party lost its only seat.

In the 2011 election, the party won 14 seats and became a partner in the six-party "rainbow" cabinet led by Jyrki Katainen. The decision to join the government created a split in the party, leading to the expulsion of two MPs from the parliamentary group. In 2014, the Left Alliance left the cabinet over a dispute on a package of spending cuts and tax hikes. In 2014 European Parliament election, the party regained their lost seat.

In the 2015 parliamentary election, the party received 211,615 votes, 7.1% of the total, and won 12 seats in the parliament. In April 2016, Arhinmäki announced that he wouldn't seek another term as the party leader. On 11 June 2016, Arhinmäki was succeeded by Li Andersson. Under the leadership of Andersson, the party gained support in the 2017 municipal elections and the 2019 parliamentary election; in the latter, the party increased its representation in the parliament for the first time since 1995.

In the 2023 Finnish parliamentary election, the Left Alliance suffered its worst defeat ever, losing 5 seats, leading to the party only getting 11 MPs into the Finnish Parliament. However, in the next year's European Parliament elections, the Left Alliance finished a surprising second, ahead of the Social Democrats, and elected three MEPs, including party leader Li Andersson. Prior to the election, polls had shown the party to be in fourth place. Andersson herself received the most votes of any Finnish politician in European election history.

Ideology and policies
According to the Left Alliance's party programme, adopted by the 5th Party Congress on 16 June 2007, the fundamental values of the Left Alliance are equality, freedom, sustainable development, and democracy. The party believes that globally, democracy must be strengthened, and that democracy should be stronger than the power of capital, challenging global capitalism. Important values also include global solidarity, stopping political polarisation in Finland, freedom and the right to work, and environmentalism. The party is for equality in all its forms and identifies strongly as feminist, anti-racist and is in support of economic democracy. The party supports introducing a universal basic income and prioritizes supporting the weakest members of society.

The Left Alliance wants the European Union to be more socially just. The party endorses the European Green Deal via changing the European Central Bank’s finance-sector’s quantitative easing stimulus into a green stimulus to mitigate global warming and create green-collar jobs.

The party has traditionally been one of Finland’s staunch opposers of membership in NATO. After Finland considered an accession bid to NATO in May 2022, the party was in doubt whether to officially support an eventual NATO membership but assured that it would stay in the Finnish Government in the case it would make one. During its annual party congress in June 2022, the Left Alliance adapted its party program and now only demands an eventual NATO membership to remain defensive, with no permanent NATO military bases or nuclear weapons within the country. It also demanded the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to be taken off the European Union’s list of terrorist organisations.

Chairpersons

 * Claes Andersson (1990–1998)
 * Suvi-Anne Siimes (1998–2006)
 * Martti Korhonen (2006–2009)
 * Paavo Arhinmäki (2009–2016)
 * Li Andersson (2016–present)

Current members of parliament
The following politicians were elected to the Finnish Parliament in the April 2023 parliamentary election.


 * Li Andersson
 * Anna Kontula
 * Mai Kivelä
 * Aino-Kaisa Pekonen
 * Hanna Sarkkinen
 * Veronika Honkasalo
 * Jussi Saramo
 * Merja Kyllönen
 * Timo Furuholm
 * Minja Koskela
 * Laura Meriluoto