Time for young people to decide

Many long-standing politicians have announced this autumn that they are either leaving national politics altogether or have moved on to other roles, for example in business. Among them are several former ministers, and they are among the top politicians in the country, at least in terms of votes. Helsingin Sanomat listed in its September article that the Centre Party alone may have a gap of more than 100 000 votes in the upcoming parliamentary elections, as a number of MPs will be leaving the party. And the Centre Party is not alone in its problem.

In total, there are nearly a quarter of a million votes looking for a new home in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, when you add up all the votes of all the leavers. That's almost a tenth of all the votes cast, more than the Left Alliance as a whole received as a party. The number could still grow, as many of the older generation of politicians have not announced their succession. There is also a question mark over the Blue Future as a party as a whole, i.e. whether there will be others among the four who are certain to resign. The possible resignation of Timo Soini alone would 'free up' some 30 000 more votes. The absence from the lists of the Coalition Party of Finland of vote losers from the previous elections in 2015, such as Jyrki Katainen (24 000 votes) and Jan Vapaavuori (11 000 votes), is also noteworthy. The upcoming elections could therefore be potentially the biggest generational change in the country's parliament for some time, if the parties have the courage to field young candidates.

Parliament and the parties need a generational change, because regardless of party affiliation or place of residence, certain generational experiences are the same for Finns, as is the way the world is perceived. There is a huge difference if you compare only young people in their twenties today with those who studied twenty years ago, i.e. those who are now in their forties. Both study and work have changed significantly in that time, but the world around them has changed even more. Divergent and even erroneous perceptions of our society may well bias our decision-making. For example, if your only experience of higher education is from 25 years ago, you may well have a different perception of what universities of applied sciences are and what they are like, or whether universities are overfunded and only provide sheltered employment. And what then are the experiences of studying and life as a young person in the 1970s compared to young people today?

The parties also need a generational change for their own sake. If all your party's MPs are almost invariably more than 20-50 years older than you, how can you identify with them? This will hardly help to increase voter turnout among young people, which the Minister of Justice, Antti Häkkänen, has also called the fate of democracy. And the more young people who do not vote now, the more will not do so in the future, because active citizenship is not born, it is grown.

Much of the outcome of the parliamentary elections depends on the voters, of course, but so do the parties, because they decide the voting options. This election is a great opportunity for parties to put young people on their lists of candidates, because this time many old people will give up their seats voluntarily, and a possible generational change will not be so painful. Parties now have the opportunity to make decisions for the future and to rely on young people.

Valtteri Törmänen

The author is a board member of the Finnish Association of Student Unions - SAMOK and the Green Youth and is active in the Union of Journalists.

The following politicians, among others, are unlikely to stand as candidates in the forthcoming parliamentary elections:

The Centre

Mauri Pekkarinen, 9200 votes
Seppo Kääriäinen, 7000 votes
Timo Kalli, 4200 votes
Kauko Juhantalo, 4600 votes
Elsi Katainen, 7080 votes
Markku Rossi, 4500 votes
Olli Rehn, 6800 votes
Tapani Tölli, 9400 votes
Mirja Vehkaperä, 5400 votes
Niilo Keränen, 5700 votes
Mikko Alatalo, 6800 votes
Paula Lehtomäki, 4500 votes

Coalition

Alexander Stubb, 27 100 votes
Lenita Toivakka, 5000 votes
Pertti Salolainen, 4500 votes
Sanna Lauslahti, 4600 votes
Outi Mäkelä, 6600 votes

RKP

Stefan Wallin, 9800 votes
Carl Haglund, 21 500 votes
Mats Nylund, 5200 votes

SDP

Lauri Ihalainen, 10 350 votes
Susanna Huovinen, 5000 votes
Riitta Myller, 4800 votes
Maria Tolppanen, 5500 votes
Nasima Razmyar, 5100 votes

Left Alliance

Kari Uotila, 3150 votes

Greens

Jani Toivola, 6500 votes

A blue future

Maria Lohela, 5600 votes
Pentti Oinonen, 6300 votes
Lea Mäkipää, 6100 votes