introduction

At the general election in March 1983, the Finnish Liberal People's Party, Liberaalinen Kansanpuolue (LKP), lost its toehold in the 200 seat national assembly (Eduskunta). This meant for the first time since the creation of a modern legislative system in Finland in 1907, there were no liberal representatives in parliament – precisely the same fate which had befallen the Norwegian Liberals (Venstre) two years earlier. To many observers of the Finnish political scene, this disastrous result for LKP came as little surprise, and the newspaper obituaries to mark the peaceful demise of the party were doubtless composed shortly after the Liberals' decision to become a member organisation of the Centre (formerly Agrarian) Party early in 1982. It was in this twilight world as ‘a party within a party’ that LKP lost all four of its parliamentarians and plummeted to an all-time nadir of 0.8 per cent of the active electorate in 1983. It seemed the end of the line for Finnish liberalism and its absorption into a federated political centre similar to the UDF in France.

The road back for the party will be long and hard. At the local government elections in October 1984, to be sure, LKP contrived to increase its vote slightly (1.3 per cent of the valid poll) and then emboldened by the resurgence of liberalism in neighbouring Sweden and the 14.3 per cent gained by Folkpartiet at the autumn 1985 general election, LKP seized the opportunity of breaking the knot with the Centre Party.