The Swedish People’s Party
The Swedish People’s Party (SFP) is a moderate liberal political party. It adheres to the Nordic countries’ style of democratic government.
The Swedish People’s Party in Ingå
The Swedish People’s Party’s local branch in Ingå, which was founded in 1906, has about 240 members and is thus one of the biggest branches in West Nyland. Ingå also has an active branch of the Swedish Women’s League (Svenska Kvinnoförbundet), and Swedish Youth (Svensk ungdom).
The Swedish People’s Party has, during the Council period 2021-2025, 17 councellors out of a total of 27 and is thus the biggest party in the Municipal Council. The party has 6 seats out of 9 on the Municipal Board, and, in addition, seats on all the municipal committees. The Swedish People’s Party chairs the Municipal Council and the Municipal Executive Board.
For information on the local branch of the Swedish People’s Party in Ingå, please contact Kaj Karlstedt, Chair email: kaj.karlstedt@gmail.com.
History
The Swedish People’s Party was founded in 1906 after a modern parliament was established in Finland, with equal voting rights for all men and women.
The party was founded by the journalist Axel Lille, Doctor of Law, who felt a broader popular movement was needed for all Swedish- speaking people in Finland, regardless of their social or professional background.
The same broad base is still today unique in the political arena of Finland, and it has been cited as an explanation for the Swedish People’s Party’s longevity as a coalition party in Finnish governments ever since Finland’s independence in 1917. Since many of the Swedish People’s Party’s policies are already good compromises, they are applicable as such to the whole of Finland.
The name is pronounced in Swedish with a slight emphasis on ”Folk-” (People’s). It is a grassroots movement for the Swedish-speaking population of Finland, not a party only for recent immigrants from Sweden.
Who are the Swedish-speaking Finns?
Finland is a bilingual country according to its constitution. This means that members of the Swedish language minority have the right to communicate with the authorities in their mother tongue.
The majority of today’s Swedish speakers, especially in the countryside, have their origins in the settlers who came to Finland from Central Sweden, mainly Uppland, in the early 13th century. Other minor groups of immigrants, who came from Germany (often via Sweden), Britain, Russia and the Baltic area during the Later Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, became assimilated into the Swedish-speaking population.
Ingå’s Swedish History
Ingå’s Swedish past also dates back to the early medieval period. It takes its name from an early Swedish settler ’Inge’, who established a farm on the stream running through today’s centre, which came to be known as Ingå ’Inge’s stream’. It is interesting to note that, in contradistinction to other municipalities in West Nyland, nearly all the old place-names in Ingå are Swedish. Ever since the Swedish language was first introduced in the Middle Ages, it has occupied a strong position in Ingå, sharing with the rest of West Nyland the characteristic two-tone word accent, which is also a defining feature of today’s Standard Swedish in Sweden.
Ingå has lived through several historical periods: it was a municipality of Sweden for 600 years, just like any other district within the Swedish kingdom, then it was governed by the Russian Tsar for more than a century, now it is a municipality of the Republic of Finland.
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