History

The Swedish People's Party was founded in 1906 after a remarkably modern parliament was established in Finland, with equal voting rights for all men and women.

The party was founded by journalist and Doctor of Law, Axel Lille, who felt a broad popular movement was needed for all Swedish speaking people in Finland, regardless of their social or professional background.

That same broad base is still today unique in the political arena of Finland, and it has been used as an explanation for The Swedish People's Party's longetivety as a coalition government party since Finland's independence in 1918. Since many of The Swedish People's Party policies are already (because of the Party's nature) good compromises, many policies are applicable as such to the whole of Finland.

The name should be pronounced with slight emphasis on the word "People's". It's a grass-roots movement for the Swedish speaking people of Finland, not a party for Swedish people (as in ”people from the Country of Sweden”).

Who are the Swedish speaking Finns?

Finland is a bilingual country according to its constitution. This means that members of the Swedish language minority have the right to communicate with the authorities in their mother tongue.

The Swedish speaking finns generally don't label themselves as an ethnic minority, as their origins are very diverse; many have their roots in Sweden, others have ancestors from Germany, Great Britain, Russia or the Baltics, who at the time adotped Swedish as their language when they came to Finland.