Finnish ALDE Party member Svenska Folkpartiet (SFP) held an online Congress on 29-30 May, ahead of the country’s local elections which will take place on 13 June.

Party leader and Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson was re-elected to lead the party during the Congress. Holding this position since 2016, Henriksson thanked party members for their trust in her work and shared her optimism for the coming elections:

“Together we will grow and win in the local elections. […] Our values, where all humans have the same rights, are manifested through concrete actions, not just in ceremonial speeches.”

“SFP has a record-breaking list for these local elections, and we have candidates in a larger proportion of municipalities than ever before, including new municipalities. A vote for SFP is a vote for safe everyday life, wellbeing, good values, reasonable tax policies and bilingual Finland,” she continued.

Sandra Bergqvist, Silja Borgarsdóttir Sandelin and Henrik Wickström were elected as deputy leaders of the party.

While the Congress agenda was primarily focused on national and local topics, European cooperation and international stability were also discussed. The leader of the party’s parliamentary group Anders Adlercreutz MP highlighted the importance of EU membership for SFP but also for Finland as a whole:

“Being a part of the EU means safety, trade and interaction, a bigger role in the international community. This means an economic benefit for Finland – around 15 billion euros per year to be exact. This means that we have the chance to tackle some of the biggest global problems of our time, like climate change.”

“We can’t make the EU an issue of domestic or municipal policy. Ahead of the elections, there are parties that have been ready to play with our economy, wellbeing, export and security policy to gain short-term gains in domestic policy. This must not happen again,” Adlercreutz concluded.

You can rewatch the Congress recordings (in Swedish and Finnish) here.

SFP har inlett sin partidag 2021 - RKP:n puoluekokous 2021 on alkanut.

Partidagen hålls på grund av coronapandemin virtuellt. Du kan följa med sändningen på partiets Facebooksida eller på SFP:s partidags-sida på webben. #partidag2021#puoluekokous2021@anna_maja pic.twitter.com/rAXv0r3ELT

— SFP • RKP (@sfprkp) May 29, 2021

Photo credit: Laura Kotila, Finnish Government 2020.