Green League
Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/-
1996 170,670 7.6 1 / 16
1999 166,786 13.4 2 / 16 1
2004 172,844 10.4 1 / 14 1
2009 206,439 12.4 2 / 13 1
2014 160,967 9.3 1 / 13 1
2019 292,892 16.0 3 / 13 2
Elections results -- European Parliament elections
The Green League (VIHR, , ), shortened to the Greens, is a green political party in Finland. The Green League is among the largest political parties in Finland. The Greens hold twenty seats in the Finnish Parliament and two in the European Parliament. The party is a member of the Global Greens and the European Green Party, while their MEPs, Heidi Hautala and Ville Niinistö sit with The Greens-European Free Alliance in the European Parliament. Originally split on whether Finland should join the European Union, the Green League is pro-European and was the first Finnish party in favor of the federalisation of the European Union. Founded in 1987, the party absorbed a number of green organisations and their members, including four MPs elected in 1987. The party won ten seats in the 1991 election. Despite small losses in the in 1995 election, Pekka Haavisto joined Paavo Lipponen's first cabinet, which was composed of a rainbow coalition. This made the Green League the first green party to form part of a national cabinet. The party remained in government until 2002, when it resigned in opposition to nuclear power. The party slowly rose in popularity between 1995 and 2007, when winning a total of 15 seats, and joined the centre-right-led government. In the 2011 election, the party suffered significant losses, falling to ten seats, but remained in government.