Green League

The Green League (Finnish: Vihreä liitto [ˈʋihreæ ˈliːtːo], Vihr; Swedish: Gröna förbundet [ˈɡrøːnɑ fœrˈbʉndet]; Northern Sami: Ruoná lihttu; Inari Sami: Ruánáá litto; Skolt Sami: Ruânn lett), shortened to the Greens (Finnish: Vihreät; Swedish: de Gröna), is a green political party in Finland. Ideologically, the Green League is positioned on the centre-left of the political spectrum. It is a reformist party and it is supportive of feminism, animal rights and green liberal ideas.

Originally split on whether Finland should join the European Union, the Green League decided on being pro-European, it was also the first Finnish party in favor of the federalisation of the European Union. The Green League is among the midsized political parties in Finland. The Greens hold thirteen of the 200 seats in the Finnish Parliament and three of Finland's 14 European Parliament seats. The party is a member of the Global Greens and the European Green Party; its MEPs sit in the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament.

Founded in 1987, the party absorbed a number of green organizations and their members, electing its first MPs in 1987. The party won ten seats in the 1991 election. Despite small losses in the 1995 election, Pekka Haavisto joined Paavo Lipponen's first cabinet, which was composed of a rainbow coalition. This made the Green League the first green party to form part of a national cabinet. The party remained in government until 2002 when it resigned in opposition to nuclear power. The party slowly rose in popularity between 1995 and 2007, when winning a total of 15 seats, and joined the center-right-led government. In the 2011 election, the party suffered significant losses, falling to ten seats, but remained in government. In 2015, the party recovered its losses from 2011, returning to 15 seats. In the 2019 election, the party achieved by far its best-ever result, winning 20 seats and 11.5% of the vote. They became the fifth-largest party and became the third-largest member of the Social Democratic-led government.

In the 2017 municipal elections, the Green League was the fourth biggest party with 534 seats. They gained 211 more seats from 2012 elections. Since June 2023, the party's leader and chairman has been Sofia Virta. From 2015 to 2019, the party was in opposition and provided harsh criticism regarding the actions of the conservative Sipilä Cabinet, such as financial support for economically well-off companies, Fortum's purchase of Uniper, and the expedited process of constitution-changing surveillance laws.