Finnish Centre Youth Keskustanuoret | |
---|---|
Chairperson | Jere Tapio |
Founded | 1945 |
Headquarters | Helsinki, Finland |
Mother party | Finnish Centre Party |
International affiliation | International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) |
European affiliation | European Liberal Youth (Lymec) |
Nordic affiliation | Nordic Center Youth (NCF) |
Magazine | Juuri |
Website | keskustanuoret.fi |
Finnish Centre Youth Finnish : Keskustanuoret is the biggest political youth organisation in Finland with 17 000 members. It is the youth wing of the Centre Party. It is formed by 19 regional organisations and approximately 400 local associations.
The organisation was formerly known as Nuoren Keskustan Liitto and until 1964 Maaseudun Nuorten Liitto. [1]
Finnish Centre Youth is a member of the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC), International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) [2] and a founding member of the Nordic Centre Youth (NCF). [3]
The organisation was founded after World War II on 30 June 1945 in Salo as a union of 14 regional youth organisations of the Agrarian League. The Salo meeting elected Johannes Virolainen as the first president of the organisation. Two decades later, Virolainen became the Prime Minister of Finland. [4]
The post-war era was a politically active time in Finland. The new centrist youth organisation rapidly gained new members, reaching 50 000 members in 1954 [5] and 70 000 members in 1962. [6] Since then, the number of members has been gradually declining (the end of 70s being an exception). [7]
Tens of Finnish Ministers and hundreds of members of Finnish Parliament have background in Finnish Centre Youth. This is the list of most notables of them:
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Presidential elections were held in Finland in January and February 2012. The first round took place on 22 January 2012 with advance voting between 11 and 17 January. Since no candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on 5 February, with advance voting between 25 and 31 January. Sauli Niinistö was elected the President of Finland for a term from 1 March 2012 until 1 March 2018.
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