A Poisoned Chalice? Finland’s Left Alliance and the Perils of Government

Abstract

This chapter considers the very mixed experience of coalition government participation of the Left Alliance of Finland (Vasemmistoliitto – VAS). The party participated in government in Finland from 1995 to 2003, yet without any clear gains in policy terms and certainly without success in halting a slow electoral decline. Indeed, that decline has somewhat accelerated since the experience of government. Despite that, many VAS leaders remain convinced that government participation was the only option open to the party and that a strategy of ‘oppositionism’ would have merely hastened the party’s isolation and decline. The party now faces major strategic questions about how to conduct itself in opposition – and how best to facilitate a return to government office, if possible in 2011 when elections are due.