Finland is a parliamentary republic governed under the Constitution of Finland (731/1999), which came into force on 1 March 2000. The head of state is President Alexander Stubb, who took office on 1 March 2024 and leads foreign policy together with the government. The head of government is Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, whose four-party coalition was appointed on 20 June 2023. Laws are made by the Eduskunta (Riksdag in Swedish), a single-chamber parliament of 200 members elected every four years, and justice is handled by two independent court systems, one general and one administrative, with no constitutional court.
Constitution of Finland (731/1999): One Act Replacing Four
Finland declared independence on 6 December 1917, and its first constitutional settlement was shaped by a short, bitter argument about whether the new state should be a kingdom at all. On 9 October 1918 Parliament elected a German prince, Friedrich Karl of Hesse, as King of Finland, but after Imperial Germany's defeat he renounced the throne on 14 December 1918. At the 1919 election republican parties won three-quarters of the seats, and the Constitution Act, also called the Instrument of Government, was adopted on 17 July 1919. To appease the monarchists it gave the new president extensive powers.
For eighty years the constitution was not one document but four statutes with constitutional status: the 1919 Constitution Act, the Parliament Act (dating from 1906 and rewritten in 1928), the Ministerial Responsibility Act of 1922 and the Act on the High Court of Impeachment of 1922. The system also relied on "exceptive laws", ordinary acts passed by the constitutional procedure as one-off exceptions to the constitution without changing its text.
Joining the European Union in 1995 pushed the issue into the open, because President and Parliament argued over who should speak for Finland in Brussels. A Constitution 2000 Working Group was set up in 1995, a drafting commission followed in 1996 and finished its proposal on 17 June 1997, and Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee reported unanimously on the bill in January 1999. Because a constitutional change needs two parliaments, the outgoing house voted on 12 February 1999 to leave the bill in abeyance; the parliament elected in March 1999 approved it that June. The result is a single act of 131 sections arranged in 13 chapters.
Chapters 1 and 2: Sovereignty, Parliamentarism and Basic Rights
The opening chapter states that Finland is a sovereign republic, that power belongs to the people, and that Parliament is the highest organ of state. It also writes in the separation of powers, the independence of the courts and the principle of parliamentary government, which means the cabinet must keep Parliament's confidence. Chapter 2 carries over the rights catalogue that was reformed in August 1995 and closely mirrors the European Convention on Human Rights, adding educational, social and economic rights to the classic political freedoms.
Several individual sections shape everyday government. Section 17 makes Finnish and Swedish the two national languages and recognises the Sámi as an indigenous people with the right to maintain and develop their own language and culture; Finnish is the first language of 84.1% of the population (2024). Section 106 tells a court to give the constitution precedence when an ordinary law is in evident conflict with it in a particular case. Section 127 obliges every citizen to take part in or assist national defence, which underpins conscription.
Changing the constitution is deliberately slow. An amendment must be approved by a simple majority in one parliament and then by a two-thirds majority in the next, after an election. If the matter cannot wait, five-sixths of members can declare it urgent, after which a two-thirds vote passes it in the same parliament.
President Alexander Stubb and the Powers Left to the Presidency
The presidency was created in 1919, and for most of the 20th century it was the strongest office in the country. In 1973 an emergency law even extended Urho Kekkonen's third term by four years without an election. His successor Mauno Koivisto, elected in 1982, promised to reduce the president's power, and amendments in 1991, 2000 and 2012 did so.
From 1919 to 1988 presidents were chosen by an electoral college, which in 1988 ran in parallel with a direct vote. Since 1994 they have been elected directly for six years, with a limit of two consecutive terms, and a candidate must be a natural-born Finnish citizen. The first round falls on the fourth Sunday of January, and if nobody wins more than half the votes, the top two meet two weeks later. In 2024 the first round was held on 28 January; Stubb then beat Pekka Haavisto in the 11 February runoff by 51.6% to 48.4%, the closest presidential runoff in Finnish history, and became the 13th president. His predecessor Sauli Niinistö had served the maximum two terms.
Under the 2000 constitution the president still directs foreign policy in cooperation with the government and is commander-in-chief of the Finnish Defence Forces, a role that mattered when Finland joined NATO on 4 April 2023. Every bill passed by Parliament needs the president's signature within three months, but the veto is only suspensive: if the president refuses, Parliament can readopt the bill by a simple majority and it becomes law anyway. The president may dissolve Parliament only on a reasoned proposal from the prime minister, after consulting the speaker and the parliamentary groups, and keeps the power to pardon individual offenders.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and the Council of State
The biggest change in 2000 was moving the choice of prime minister from the president to Parliament. After an election the parliamentary groups negotiate a programme, Parliament elects the prime minister, and the president formally appoints that person and then the other ministers the prime minister proposes. The government, not the president, now decides whether to introduce or withdraw a bill, including bills on foreign affairs.
The Orpo cabinet is Finland's 77th government. It joins Orpo's National Coalition Party with the Finns Party, the Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats. Of its 19 ministerial posts, eight went to the National Coalition, seven to the Finns, and two each to the Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats. The Chancellor of Justice sits with the cabinet as an ex officio member to check the legality of its decisions. Ministers do not have to be members of Parliament, but every one of them needs Parliament's continuing confidence.
The Eduskunta's 200 Seats After the April 2023 Election
Finland's parliament was founded on 9 May 1906, while the country was still a grand duchy under the Russian tsar. The Parliament Act of that year introduced universal suffrage, and Finnish women became the first in the world with unrestricted rights both to vote and to stand for election. Nineteen women were elected in 1907. Since 1931 the Eduskunta has met in Parliament House on Mannerheimintie in Helsinki, designed by Johan Sigfrid Sirén and fronted by 14 red granite columns quarried at Kalvola.
Of the 200 seats, 199 are filled from 13 multi-member districts electing between 6 and 37 members each by open-list proportional representation using the D'Hondt method; Åland elects the remaining member on its own. Only once has a single party won a majority: the Social Democrats took 103 seats in 1916.
At the election of 2 April 2023 the National Coalition Party came first with 20.8% of the vote and 48 seats. The Finns Party recorded its best result to date with 46, and Sanna Marin's Social Democrats rose to 43 while losing power. For the first time the Centre Party did not top the vote in any district. Parliament elects its speaker for one year at a time; Jussi Halla-aho of the Finns Party has held the post since 2023.
The Supreme Court, Supreme Administrative Court and Constitutional Law Committee
Finnish law is codified and descends from Swedish law. Ordinary civil and criminal cases go from district courts to courts of appeal and finally to the Supreme Court (Korkein oikeus) in Helsinki, which has a president and, currently, 18 other justices who usually decide cases in panels of five. Disputes with public authorities run through administrative courts to the Supreme Administrative Court.
Finland has no constitutional court, and courts cannot strike down an act of Parliament. Instead, bills are checked before they pass by Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee, which in practice acts like a constitutional court. If it finds a problem, it recommends changes before the bill goes any further. The same committee also examines charges of misconduct in office against ministers before a case can go to the High Court of Impeachment.
Åland, 19 Regions and 21 Wellbeing Services Counties
Below national level the strongest unit is Åland, the Swedish-speaking archipelago between Finland and Sweden. Parliament granted it autonomy in the Act on the Autonomy of Åland of 1920, the League of Nations confirmed that settlement in 1921, and new autonomy acts followed in 1951 and 1991. Åland has its own parliament and a premier who heads its regional government, Swedish is its only official language, and it is demilitarised.
Finland as a whole is divided into 19 regions (maakunta), Åland included. On the mainland the regional councils, made up of delegates from municipal councils, handle regional planning and development. The newest layer is the 21 wellbeing services counties, approved by Parliament on 23 June 2021 under Sanna Marin's government. Since 2023 they have run health, social and rescue services that municipalities used to provide. Their councils are directly elected, but they cannot levy taxes and are funded by the central government. The City of Helsinki and Åland stay outside this structure and organise these services themselves. Municipalities remain self-governing and still run schools, water supply and local streets.
From the 1987 Referendum Clause to the 2012 Citizens' Initiative
The 2000 constitution came midway through a long run of reforms. In 1987 provisions for consultative referendums were added. The 1991 package introduced direct presidential elections, first used in 1994, limited presidents to two consecutive terms and restricted the power to dissolve Parliament. In 1995 the remaining right of a one-third minority to postpone ordinary legislation until after the next election was abolished, completing the move to majority rule.
Since 2000 the constitution has been amended again. An amendment passed in 2011 lets citizens put a bill before Parliament: an initiative that gathers 50,000 signatures from eligible voters within six months must be considered like any other bill, and the procedure has been available since 2012. For the setting in which these institutions work, see our guide to Helsinki, Finland's capital and the account of the languages spoken in Finland, while the government of Sweden shows how Finland's neighbour has kept a monarchy alongside a very similar parliamentary system.