Antti Lindtman secured a new term as chair of Finland’s Social Democratic Party on Saturday as the opposition party opened its three-day congress in Tampere with disputes over fiscal policy, labour rules and its route back to government.
Lindtman, 43, faced no rival for the leadership. His new term runs until 2028, when SDP will make its next leadership choices under new party rules approved at the congress. The decision confirms Lindtman as SDP’s candidate for prime minister if the party enters the next parliamentary election from its current polling lead.
“Thank you for letting me do this with you,” Lindtman said after his re-election. “With all my heart, out of love for this country.”
The congress at Tampere Hall runs from 23 to 25 May. Delegates will choose three deputy chairs, a party secretary and the chair of the party council on Sunday. The party will vote on its political programme and motions before the meeting closes on Monday.
Lindtman used his opening speech to frame SDP as the main alternative to Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government. He said the party would reverse changes approved by parliament this week that allow one fixed-term employment contract of up to one year without a specific reason.
“SDP will not accept a working life where a person’s life becomes endless short-term work without grounds,” he said in the party’s release. “SDP will not allow baseless fixed-term jobs in Finland.”
He also pledged measures to criminalise underpayment, strengthen trade unions’ right to bring cases and extend contractor liability through subcontracting chains.
The labour message drew applause from delegates and formed the centre of a speech aimed at workers, families and voters hit by benefit cuts.
Lindtman said SDP would restore parts of adult education support, bring back protected earnings in unemployment and housing benefits, and repair flaws in social assistance. He also said the party would reverse the government’s corporate tax cut.
The congress also exposed internal pressure over the debt brake, a fiscal agreement that, according to current estimates, would require 8 to 11 billion euros in adjustment during the next parliamentary term.
Lindtman said the scale of the adjustment means Finland will need structural reforms, growth and higher employment alongside savings.
He argued that trust and certainty matter more to the economy than single instruments, and accused the right-wing government of eroding both.
Outgoing deputy chair Matias Mäkynen, who has criticised the party’s economic stance, told reporters that SDP can live with the debt brake if it changes. He said the rule should adjust more with the economic cycle and should not force cuts during downturns.
The contest for deputy chairs will test the balance inside the party. Five MPs are running for three posts: current deputy chairs Nasima Razmyar and Niina Malm, plus Pinja Perholehto, Jani Kokko and Juha Viitala. Mäkynen is not seeking another term.
Razmyar, who has challenged parts of Lindtman’s economic line, said that EU fiscal rules bind Finland regardless of domestic debate.
“I think that because of these rules there is no other option than adjustment,” she said.
The congress changed SDP’s internal rules. The number of congress delegates will fall from 500 to 350, and the party congress cycle will lengthen from three years to four. Future leadership elections will cover four-year terms, although the leadership chosen in Tampere will serve two years before the 2028 congress.
The SDP chair also set out positions on immigration, climate policy and foreign affairs.
Asked whether SDP was copying the tougher immigration line of Denmark’s Social Democrats, he rejected the comparison.
“We are not taking a model or looking to the side,” he said. “It is clear that integration must succeed better than now.”
He said immigrants must learn Finnish or Swedish, while language training must be available. He also said Finland should keep labour market testing for work-based immigration because unemployment remains high.
“At the same time, Finland’s appeal to top specialists must be protected,” he said.
Lindtman also criticised racism controversies surrounding the government. Ilta-Sanomat reported that he said growth companies had warned him that international experts with choices about where to live had begun to question Finland’s social climate.
On foreign policy, Lindtman said Finland should recognise Palestine as part of a two-state solution. He also backed stronger EU unity and said Finland should support more qualified-majority decisions in the EU so the union does not become hostage to single member states.
He linked climate policy to industrial strategy and repeated SDP’s aim of making Finland the world’s first carbon-neutral welfare state.
The party’s new programme includes a two-week care guarantee, a family doctor and nurse model, limits on phones and social media in schools, a target to end homelessness in the 2030s and a goal for at least half of young adults to complete a higher education degree.
Lindtman closed his speech with a personal reference to his daughter Sofie, who will turn 18 in 2035.
“I do not want her to ask then: Dad, why did you not succeed?” he said in the SDP release. “I want her to ask: How did you do it?”
HT
