Christian Democrats

The Christian Democrats (, ; KD) is a Christian-democratic political party in Finland. It was founded in May 1958, chiefly by the Christian faction of the National Coalition Party. It entered parliament in 1970. The party leader since 28 August 2015 has been Sari Essayah. The Christian Democrats have five seats in the Finnish Parliament. It is positioned on the centre-right on the political spectrum. The party name was for a long time abbreviated to SKL (standing for , , Finnish Christian League), until 2001, when the party changed its name to the current Christian Democrats and its abbreviation to KD. The KD was a minor party in the centre-right coalition government led by Prime Minister Esko Aho between 1991 and 1994 and later a part of Rainbow coalition led by Jyrki Katainen and Alexander Stubb between 2011 and 2015. The party is a member of the European People's Party (EPP). KD-lehti is the party's weekly newspaper. History When the Christian Democrats was founded in 1958, as the name Finnish Christian League, the communist-dominated Finnish People's Democratic League was polling about 25 per cent and became the largest parliamentary grouping. That, together with lax alcohol laws, salacious publications and assistance from the Norwegian KrF, sparked the Christian initiative.