When things looked bad for the National Coalition Party

Vesa Vares’s book reveals hard times of political right in postwar Finland

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By Unto Hämäläinen
     
     In August 1944 British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden drew up a memorandum on Europe in the wake of the Second World War. He placed Finland inside the security zone of the Soviet Union, but continued: “Although we shall no doubt hope that Finland will be left some real degree of at least cultural and commercial independence and a parliamentary regime, Russian influence will, in any event be predominant in Finland and we shall not be able, nor would it serve any important British interests, to contest that influence.”
     Eden’s view of Finland was a grim, but realistic Western point of view. The book by Vesa Vares on the history of the National Coalition Party between 1944 and 1966 reveals how the Finnish political right adapted to the new world order as envisioned by Eden.
     
The National Coalition Party was in opposition nearly the whole time. It managed to slip into government only a couple of times. A joint government of the SDP, the Agrarian League, and the National Coalition Party had to resign during the “night frost” period in 1958 after being in power just a few months.
      From 1964 to 1966 the National Coalition Party was in the centre-led government of Johannes Virolainen, but it did not even get to choose its own ministers.
     The National Coalition Party was internally divided, and the book concludes with an account of the party’s electoral defeat in the Parliamentary elections of 1996.
     The National Coalition Party was a party of 26 seats - far fewer than the Social Democrats, the Centre Party, and the Finnish People’s Democratic League (a left wing alliance, which included the Communist Party).
     
It is no wonder that Vares’s book is a mournful reading experience for anyone who happens to feel sympathy for the National Coalition Party. It is a 20-year gauntlet of election losses, failures in presidential politics, internal disputes, a constant shortage of money, and overall confusion and submission.
     
Vares writes chillingly that the National Coalition Party was not interesting even from the point of view of the West. There was not even any point in channelling it the kind of election campaign funding that the Social Democrats got from the Untied States and other places.
     “It was plagued by the eternal problem of the model student: rarely are those rewarded who behave in the desired manner anyway. The National Coalition Party also did not fight against the Communists in the front line, as the Social Democrats did, and besides, it was a party that was about half the size of the SDP, apparently condemned to being perpetually in opposition - in every possible way, an unnecessary investment.
     
The disappointed opposition withdrew into its shell. a party delegate from the north of Finland says that there was a belief in Northern Finland that the National Coalition Party “is the kind of fancy party which hardly ever moves among the people, and apparently does not act on behalf of the people”.
     In the character gallery of political cartoonist Kari Suomalainen, the National Coalition Party was depicted as a clergyman with a military helmet. The figure drawn by Kari is a hilariously appropriate characterisation in the view of everyone except supporters of the party itself.
     
In addition to external difficulties, the National Coalition Party was plagued by an internal division between staunch conservatives and more moderate supporters of Realpolitik . The former were represented in their purest form by Tuure Junnila, an unshakeable supporter of the market economy and Western values. The latter had as their leading figure Päiviö Hetemäki, a realist from Central Finland, who was ready to compromise on ideological purity, if it led to results.
     Another constant topic of dispute was, if the National Coalition Party should seek cooperation with the SDP, or with the Agrarian League (later the Centre Party). In the latter, cooperation was hampered by the righteous wrath felt by party members toward President Urho Kekkonen; there had been many attempts in the National Coalition Party to block his road to power, but each attempt resulted in a series of defeats.
     
If history had ended in 1966, it might be said that the National Coalition Party would have failed in politics. It did not end. In spite of everything, the National Coalition Party managed to defend the “real degree of at least cultural and commercial independence and parliamentary regime” that Anthony Eden had hoped for, and to survive past the difficult times.
      There is very little in common between the National Coalition Party depicted in Vares’s book and the party of today.
     
Now the National Coalition Party is Finland’s largest party, with a strong position in government, and it is debt-free. During the period of Jyrki Katainen, it has even put its own writing of history into model shape. A year ago Vares’s first book appeared, and now the second, which is a survey of the party’s years of defeat, written in a cool a professional manner.
     Should today’s National Coalition Party supporters read it?
     Of course they should. Politics and the stock market have something in common: what goes up, will come down some day.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 7.1.2009


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UNTO HÄMÄLÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
unto.hamalainen@hs.fi