Can a religious-niche party change – or was Kirchheimer right? Analysing the Finnish Christians’ search to become a catchall electoral party

Figures & data

Table 1. The General electoral performance of the Finnish Christian Democrats, 1958–2019.

Election year	% Poll	Seats/200
1958	0.2	0
1966	0.5	0
1970	1,1	1
1972	2.5	4
1975	3.3	9
1979	4.8	9
1983	3.0	3
1987	2.6	5
1991	3.1	8
1995	3.0	7
1999	4.2	10
2003	5.3	7
2007	4.9	7
2011	4.0	6
2015	3.5	5
2019	3.9	5

Source: Vakaumuksensa välittäminen (2008, p. 136).

Table 2. Support for the Nordic Christian Parties, 1998–2021.

Christian People’s Party (Norway)	Christian Democrats (Sweden)	Christian Democrats (Finland)	Christian Democrats (Denmark)
2001 12.4	1998 11.7	1999 4.2	2001 2.3
2005 6.8	2002 9.2	2003 5.3	2005 1.7
2009 5.5	2006 6.6	2007 4. 0	2007 0.9
2013 5.6	2010 5.6	2011 4.0	2011 0.8
2017 4.2	2014 4.6	2015 3.5	2015 0.8
2021 3.8	2018 6.3	2019 3.9	2019 1.7^a

^a The national qualifying threshold for parliamentary seats is 4 per cent in Norway and Sweden and 2 per cent in Denmark. There is no formal threshold in Finland but district magnitude varies from 7 in Lapland to 36 in Uusimaa.

Table 3. Reasons for not voting for the Finnish Christian Democrats at the 2019 general election%.

KD mixes religion and politics	54
KD has a hard line attitude towards homosexuals	37
KD’s view of marriage does not correspond to ours	34
KD promotes only those matters of importance to religious persons	31
KD is not a credible party at the national level	30
There was not a suitable candidate in my constituency	15
KD is too small a player	15
KD emphasises freedom of speech/religion too much	13
KD does not defend the less well-off sufficiently	11
KD’s economic policy is too right-wing	10
KD does not have an adequate environmental profile	9
KD is too sympathetic towards immigrants	8
KD is too hostile towards immigrants	6
KD speaks too little about enterprise	4
KD’s economic policy is too left-wing	3
KD places too much emphasis on environmental questions	2
Other	4
None of the above relevant	11
Could not say	7

Source: Kantar KD-äänestystutkimus 20.3.2020. N = 1053.

Steward, T. R. (2008). Rauhassa kaikkien mutta erityisesti Israelin kanssa. In E. Erävalo (Ed.), Vakaumuksena välittäminen (pp. 60–61). kristillisdemokraatit.

 Google Scholar