52,5% of newly elected members of the Finnish Parliament support the idea of basic income, BIEN Finland says.

52,5 % of the new Finnish members of parliament agree fully or partially with the concept of basic income, Finland’s Basic Income Network (BIEN Finland) concluded after reviewing the pre-election poll conducted by the national broadcasting company YLE. The poll asked MP candidates if they agreed on this statement: “Finland should implement a basic income scheme that would replace the current minimum level of social security.”

30 MPs were in full agreement with the statement while 75 MPs agreed partially with it. Only 18 fully disagreed with it and six did not reply. Basic income supporters can be found in all parliamentary groups.

In the agrarian centre-right Centre Party, which just won the general elections held 19 April, five MPs of all 49 fully agreed with the statement and 35 partially agreed with it. Within the nationalist Finns party, which is currently the second largest party with 38 seats, one MP fully agreed and 21 partially agreed with the statement. All 15 MPs from the Green League, which became the fifth largest party after gaining five new seats, agreed with the statement. In the Left Alliance, which after losing two seats is the sixth largest party, eight MPs fully agreed with the statement and the remaining four partially agreed with it.

The Centre Party has proposed regional basic income pilots but it does not have a clear stance on the issue as such. The party has also expressed willingness to cut the Finnish public sector by 2,3 billion euros. The government-forming negotiations have already begun and the new government is expected to take office in early May. If the Greens enter the new government with the Centre Party the experiments would become very likely.

Simo Ruottinen & Johanna Perkiö

More:

Johanna Perkiö, “Finland: the opposition leader proposes Basic Income pilots”, Basic Income News, 9 October 2014

Stanislas Jourdan, “Finnish Green Party updates its Basic Income policy”, Basic Income News, 17 February 2015

Stanislas Jourdan, “Finland: 65% of parliamentary candidates favour Basic Income”, Basic Income News, 12 March 2015

Liam Upton, ”FINLAND: Pro-Basic Income Centre Party wins election” Basic Income News, 20 April 2015

Credit picture: CC NMK Photographs