Green League

Founding

The Green League was founded on 28 February 1987 and was registered as a political party the next year. Political activity had begun already in the early 1980s, when environmental activists, feminists, disillusioned young politicians from the marginalized Liberal People's Party and other active groups began to campaign on green issues in Finland. In 1995, it was the first European green party to be part of a state-level cabinet.

The party was founded as a popular movement, which explains its name's descriptor, liitto, "league". Initially, there was much resistance within the movement against founding a political party, motivated by Robert Michels' iron law of oligarchy, which claims that movements inevitably degenerate into oligarchies when they create a formal organization.^[16] The party still stresses openness and democratic decision-making, even if the Finnish word, "liitto", has been dropped from the party's website and advertisements, the word still remains in its official and registered name.

Early activities (1983–1994)

The first two parliamentary representatives were elected even before the registration, in the 1983 parliamentary election. These were the first independent representatives in the Finnish Parliament. In 1987 the number of seats rose to four, and in 1991 to a total of ten.

About half of the party's members were against Finland joining the European Union in 1994. Later, polls showed that most Greens were anti-Eurozone.^[17] The party heads declined to fight against euro-adoption.

As part of the Lipponen Cabinets (1995–2003)

In the 1995 election, the Green League received a total of nine seats out of 200. The party joined the coalition cabinet led by the Social Democratic Party, and Pekka Haavisto became the Minister of the Environment,^[18] thus becoming the first green minister in Europe.^[19]

The Green League received 7.3% of the vote, and gained two additional seats in the 1999 election, raising the total to 11. The Greens continued in the next coalition cabinet, but resigned in protest on 26 May 2002, after the cabinet's decision to allow the construction of a new nuclear plant was accepted by the parliament.

Growth to mainstream appeal (2003–present)

In 2003, the Green League received 8.0% of the vote, receiving a total of 14 seats. They increased their seats to 15 in the 2007 election while receiving 8.5% of the vote. In the 2011 election, the party lost five seats.

In the 2009 European Parliament elections, the Greens gained two of the thirteen Finnish seats in the European Parliament, which were occupied by Satu Hassi and Heidi Hautala.

At the municipal level, the Greens are an important force in the politics of the main cities of Finland. In the municipal election of 2008 the Greens received 8.9% of the vote; the vote share was considerably higher in Helsinki, where the Greens became the second-largest party with 23.2% of the vote.^[20] In several other cities, the Greens achieved the position of the third-largest party. The Greens are weaker in rural area and especially in municipalities that experience high levels of outward migration.

By the 2017 Green League party congress, Niinistö had served three full two-year terms as the chairman and stepped down according to the rules of the party. In the following leadership election, there were six candidates running for party chairman, of whom MP Touko Aalto won the election.^[21]

Soon after Aalto's election, the popularity of the Green League surged in the polls and raised briefly as the second most popular party in the country.^[22] However, in September 2017 the poll numbers turned into a downward slope, which continued until autumn 2018.^[23] After taking a month of sick leave due to exhaustion in September 2018, Aalto soon announced that he was resigning from his post, citing depression and fatigue.^[24]

In November 2018, the Green League decided to choose a temporary chairman to lead the party into the 2019 parliamentary elections and until the next party convention. In the leadership election, former chairman Pekka Haavisto was once again elected as chairman.^[25]

In June 2019, Haavisto stepped down as the chairman of the party. Maria Ohisalo was the only candidate in the leadership election and was thus elected as chairman in the city of Pori.^[26]

In the 2023 parliamentary election, Ohisalo was re-elected with 6,937 votes.^[27] However, as the Greens suffered an election defeat, Ohisalo announced that she would not seek another term as chairman. In June 2023, she was replaced by Sofia Virta.^[28]

Parliamentary elections

More information Election, Votes ...

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/-	Government
1983	43,754	1.47	2 / 200		Opposition
1987	115,988	4.03	4 / 200	2	Opposition
1991	185,894	6.82	10 / 200	6	Opposition
1995	181,198	6.52	9 / 200	1	Coalition
1999	194,846	7.27	11 / 200	2	Coalition (1999–2002)
					Opposition (2002–2003)
2003	223,846	8.01	14 / 200	3	Opposition
2007	234,429	8.46	15 / 200	1	Coalition
2011	213,172	7.25	10 / 200	5	Coalition (2011–2014)
					Opposition (2014–2015)
2015	253,102	8.53	15 / 200	5	Opposition
2019	354,194	11.49	20 / 200	5	Coalition
2023	217,426	7.03	13 / 200	7	Opposition

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Municipal elections

European Parliament elections

More information Election, Votes ...

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	EP Group
1996	170,670	7.59 (#5)	1 / 16	New	G
1999	166,786	13.43 (#4)	2 / 16	1	G/EFA
2004	172,844	10.43 (#4)	1 / 14	1
2009	206,439	12.40 (#4)	2 / 13	1
2014	160,967	9.33 (#5)	1 / 13	1
2019	292,892	16.00 (#2)	3 / 14	2
2024	206,332	11.28 (#5)	2 / 15	1

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Presidential elections

Parliamentarian and former MEP Heidi Hautala was a candidate in the presidential elections in 2000 and 2006, taking approximately a 3.5% share of votes in the first round in each. Pekka Haavisto was the first Green candidate in the 2012 election to enter the second round. Haavisto got an 18.8% share of votes in the first round, and lost to centre-right Sauli Niinistö in the second round held on 5 February.

List of party chairpersons

• 
  Kalle Könkkölä
  (1987)
• 
  Heidi Hautala
  (1987–1991)
• 
  Pekka Sauri
  (1991–1993)
• 
  Pekka Haavisto
  (1993–1995, 2018–2019)
• 
  Tuija Brax
  (1995–1997)
• 
  Satu Hassi
  (1997–2001)
• 
  Osmo Soininvaara
  (2001–2005)
• 
  Tarja Cronberg
  (2005–2009)
• 
  Anni Sinnemäki
  (2009–2011)
• 
  Ville Niinistö
  (2011–2017)
• 
  Touko Aalto
  (2017–2018)
• 
  Maria Ohisalo
  (2019–2023)
• 
  Sofia Virta
  (2023–present)

Members of parliament from 2019–2023

The following 20 Greens politicians were elected to the Finnish Parliament in the 2019 parliamentary election. 16 out of 20 members are first-timers. 17 of the members are women.^[37]

• 
  Pekka Haavisto
  (Minister for Foreign Affairs)
• 
  Maria Ohisalo
  (Minister of the Interior)
  (New)
• 
  Krista Mikkonen
  (Minister of the Environment and Climate Change)
• 
  Mari Holopainen
  (New)
• 
  Emma Kari
• 
  Pirkka-Pekka Petelius
  (New)
• 
  Inka Hopsu
  (New)
• 
  Outi Alanko-Kahiluoto
• 
  Iiris Suomela
  (New)
• 
  Satu Hassi
• 
  Atte Harjanne
  (New)
• 
  Noora Koponen
  (New)
• 
  Saara Hyrkkö
  (New)
• 
  Bella Forsgrén
  (New)
• 
  Sofia Virta
  (New)
• 
  Tiina Elo
  (New)
• 
  Jenni Pitko
  (New)
• 
  Heli Järvinen
• 
  Hanna Holopainen
  (New)
• 
  Mirka Soinikoski
  (New)

Current members of the European Parliament

Since 2024, the Green League has been represented by two MEPs in the European Parliament.

• 
  Ville Niinistö
• 
  Maria Ohisalo