Greens and Coalition fared well in service industry areas

The biggest winners in the Finnish European Parliament election, the Greens and the Coalition Party, increased their support most in areas where services constitute the main industry and which have relatively low numbers of unemployed and pensioners. Of the losers in the election, the Social Democratic Party lost evenly in predominantly manufacturing and service industry areas alike. The Centre Party suffered its biggest losses in service industry areas, but increased its support in agricultural ones.

The data are based on Statistics Finland's analysis where the changes from the 1996 European Parliament election in votes cast for the parties are compared by means of certain variables. The analysis is based on the data on almost 2,000 constituencies.

The Social Democrats suffered their relatively biggest losses in what were their strongest areas in the last election. The Greens and the Coalition Party, for their part, fared well in these areas, as well as in areas where the Social Democrats received average support in the previous European Parliament election.

The Left Wing Alliance lost support evenly across different areas, whether with a large, small or average proportion of unemployed or pensioners. In an examination by industrial structure, the Left Wing Alliance suffered least losses in service industry areas.

Well-paid and highly educated elected to the European Parliament

As in the March national Parliamentary election, the MEPs elected were well-paid and highly educated, indicates Statistics Finland's survey of the candidates' social backgrounds. In 1997, the taxable income of those elected was 1.5-fold that of the candidates and over three-fold compared to the average income of those entitled to vote.

In comparing income taxable in Finland, the current MPs earn slightly more than the newly elected MEPs. With the MPs it was FIM 323,000, and with the MEPs FIM 313,000 in 1997.

Nine out of ten of those elected to the European Parliament hold a university degree, while this is the case with seven out of ten MPs. One in seven of those entitled to vote hold a university degree.

Source: Statistics Finland's election result service