The National Coali­tion Party’s Program of Prin­ci­ples

Trans­par­ent party of the future, which puts trust in people

Approved in the regu­la­tory party meet­ing in 2018 in Turku The National Coali­tion Party’s Program of Prin­ci­ples

To the reader

The National Coali­tion Party is a multi-valued polit­i­cal party which welcomes anyone to partic­i­pate in collab­o­ra­tion who approves of the prin­ci­ples described in this Program of Prin­ci­ples. The National Coali­tion Party want to offer people exten­sive oppor­tu­ni­ties to influ­ence soci­ety and the world on behalf of the imple­men­ta­tion of free­dom, educa­tion, equal­ity of oppor­tu­ni­ties, democ­racy and other values of the Finnish, open soci­ety.

Time­less and time-adapt­ing values

The Program of Prin­ci­ples describes the National Coali­tion Party’s values, ideolo­gies and image of human­ity. It is the start­ing point and foun­da­tion for all of the National Coali­tion Party’s poli­tics.

The National Coali­tion Party’s ideol­ogy has tradi­tion­ally been the combi­na­tion of values that empha­sise human-centred­ness and indi­vid­ual free­dom, respect towards tradi­tions and respon­si­bil­ity for those in need of help and the envi­ron­ment. At differ­ent times, the mutual balance between differ­ent orien­ta­tions has varied. The Programme of Prin­ci­ples, at any given time, has reflected the ideol­ogy of the National Coali­tion Party in light of signif­i­cant issues.

The National Coali­tion Party’s ideol­ogy is exten­sive, and the empha­sis on vari­ous values is included within its scope. Within it, differ­ent orien­ta­tions and ideolo­gies repre­sented at differ­ent times can be described with multi­ple terms, such as, for exam­ple, moder­ate right­ism, green entre­pre­neur­ship, educa­tion-driven capi­tal­ism or respon­si­ble reformism.

For values to remain vibrant and signif­i­cant to people, they must also be reformed. The contin­u­ous mutual inter­ac­tion of differ­ent orien­ta­tions and seek­ing equi­lib­rium provide the power with which the National Coali­tion Party’s ideol­ogy has been able to and will be able to with­stand time and life.

The National Coali­tion Party is the direct succes­sor of Finland’s oldest party, the Finnish Party’s heritage. The National Coali­tion Party, founded in the early days of Finland’s inde­pen­dence as a soci­ety-reform­ing force, took on the respon­si­bil­ity to bring differ­ent parts of the nation together to build a common father­land. The National Coali­tion Party contin­ues to have a found­ing nature of being a soci­ety-build­ing and reform­ing value-based polit­i­cal party that convenes differ­ent people and groups.

Since the party’s found­ing, the lead­ing prin­ci­ples of the National Coali­tion Party’s poli­tics have been the promo­tion of concil­ia­tory national spirit, enabling social ascen­sion and offer­ing educa­tion to every­one, as well as gender equal­ity and work appre­ci­a­tion. The foun­da­tion of every­thing is a firm consti­tu­tional state and unbi­ased police author­i­ties who enjoy the people’s trust. The National Coali­tion Party has always under­stood that Finland must be a socially fair soci­ety which rewards activ­ity. Every­one must be able to feel that it is theirs.

This Program of Prin­ci­ples aims to inter­pret the National Coali­tion Party’s values from the current moment to the future from the people’s perspec­tive. However, we do not want to lose even the slight­est of the valu­able heritage that one hundred years of National Coali­tion Party members’ work have accu­mu­lated.

The foun­da­tions of the National Coali­tion Party’s ideol­ogy

The National Coali­tion Party wishes to develop Finland as an open soci­ety based on the free, West­ern social order in which indi­vid­u­als’ free­dom and human rights are safe­guarded.

The National Coali­tion Party and its ideol­ogy are part of the commu­nity formed by the centre-right parties of demo­c­ra­tic coun­tries. It shares the same common values of free­dom and democ­racy and wishes to work on their basis in favour of people, soci­eties and the envi­ron­ment.

Choices made in the current moment shall deter­mine the future for years or decades. Partic­u­larly, contin­u­ous work is required to reduce the environment’s load, start­ing with everybody’s every­day choices. In deci­sion-making, from a local level to a national, Euro­pean and inter­na­tional level., choices must be made that are consis­tent and safe­guard as well as promote the environment’s clean­li­ness and nature’s biodi­ver­sity, the preser­va­tion of species and the preven­tion of climate change. Carry­ing this respon­si­bil­ity is the measure with which the value of our actions is most deter­mined in the eyes of future gener­a­tions.

“The National Coali­tion Party believes people to be indi­vid­u­als that are capa­ble of caring for them­selves and each other”

The National Coali­tion Party believes people to be indi­vid­u­als that are capa­ble of caring for them­selves and each other and are primar­ily guided by their own ethi­cal consid­er­a­tions and will to do good. An indi­vid­ual needs to be surrounded by an active and well-being commu­nity to which it can belong, in which it can find support when neces­sary and to which it can provide its own signif­i­cant effort for the bene­fit of the commu­nity.

A human part of their close natural commu­ni­ties oper­ates in inter­ac­tion with others and aims to adapt their own objec­tives to the objec­tives of others. For this imple­men­ta­tion, the West­ern soci­ety model offers the best frame­work, which has devel­oped through­out history. The most impor­tant being a consti­tu­tional state, democ­racy, market econ­omy, and respect for human rights. In its ideol­ogy and all of its poli­tics, the National Coali­tion Party is commit­ted to main­tain­ing and promot­ing West­ern values.

In a free soci­ety, every­one must have the oppor­tu­nity to influ­ence the direc­tion of their own life and learn through­out life. The polit­i­cal system must remove obsta­cles that hinder humans’ personal activ­ity and self-actu­al­i­sa­tion. The contents of a pleas­ant life and the most suit­able meth­ods for achiev­ing it are primar­ily deter­mined by each individual’s own start­ing points and values.

The core of free­dom is a plenipo­ten­tiary indi­vid­u­al’s auton­omy concern­ing personal matters, regard­less of gender, age, beliefs, sexual orien­ta­tion, ances­try, social posi­tion or other back­grounds. Auton­omy and the non-viola­tion of a person’s phys­i­cal integrity are an insep­a­ra­ble part of a human’s life dignity, which is everyone’s right from birth until their last day.

A human must always be able to live with­out fear, free from violence. The most impor­tant tasks of a stable and reli­able police author­ity include ensur­ing safety for every­one. It must protect indi­vid­u­als from becom­ing victims of evil­do­ing and rule of man and discrim­i­na­tion based on racism, sexual orien­ta­tion, or any other basis. Author­i­ties must, in all circum­stances, have the prereq­ui­sites to carry out their duties to prevent threats encoun­tered by people.

Respon­si­bil­ity is an insep­a­ra­ble part of free­dom. This means that when a human imple­ments their free­dom, they also take respon­si­bil­ity for the conse­quences of their choices, both nega­tive and posi­tive. A good and fair soci­ety encour­ages respon­si­ble oper­a­tions and rewards them.

In a civilised soci­ety, the weaker are helped. A soci­ety must support and strengthen people’s abil­ity to carry respon­si­bil­ity for the well-being of them­selves and their close ones. At the same time, it must be ensured that the services and social secu­rity of a welfare state ensure the basic prereq­ui­sites of a decent life. Justice includes that dili­gence and sensi­ble choices provide success to their oper­a­tors. This also includes that people who end up in diffi­cul­ties are helped to get back on their feet.

Regard­less of their family back­ground or place of resi­dence, every­one must have the oppor­tu­nity to learn, train, develop their own path and find their strengths. Nobody’s back­ground may deter­mine what they can become. The equal­ity of oppor­tu­ni­ties is that, in Finland, every­one can educate and develop them­selves, cope and progress in life and seek happi­ness.

We are the party of educa­tion

Educa­tion has many dimen­sions: infor­ma­tive, skill-based and indi­vid­ual-based civil­i­sa­tion.

Educa­tion provides a foun­da­tion for civil­i­sa­tion: an under­stand­ing of history, readi­ness to analyse phenom­ena and set them in the right perspec­tives. Civil­i­sa­tion also refers to the under­stand­ing and appre­ci­at­ing of the many forms of art and culture.

Civil­i­sa­tion is the skill of using knowl­edge. It is the skill to think, the skill to apply and the talent to inno­vate. Indi­vid­ual-based civil­i­sa­tion is needed to place ourselves in another person’s shoes, act morally and appre­ci­ate differ­ences.

Civil­i­sa­tion aims to connect people and groups of people, not sepa­rate them from each other.

Civil­i­sa­tion aims to connect people and groups of people, not sepa­rate them from each other. Civil­i­sa­tion is a contin­u­ous jour­ney to under­stand human­ity and the world better and build the prereq­ui­sites for a better life. It builds bridges between indi­vid­u­als, gener­a­tions, nations and cultures and helps to work together to over­come common chal­lenges.

Acknowl­edg­ing other people’s values and compas­sion towards others is a key char­ac­ter­is­tic of an educated person. It is better to build on what connects people than what sepa­rates them. Human­ity includes accept­ing personal limits and merci­ful­ness towards oneself and others. It must be accepted that no one is flaw­less; every­one has the same human value.

The many dimen­sions of civil­i­sa­tion not only grow the abil­ity to think and oper­ate with other people, but it also involves a healthy level of self-confi­dence and faith that even signif­i­cant prob­lems can be resolved. This is also the objec­tive of the National Coali­tion Party’s educa­tion policy. In the rapidly chang­ing world, there is a need to be able to iden­tify the oppor­tu­ni­ties for self-reform, inno­va­tion and the reform of old. The respon­si­bil­ity for chil­dren and young people refers to the duty to raise and educate them into respon­si­ble and empa­thetic people who always seek change for the better and have faith in the future.

“Civil­i­sa­tion also involves taking care of the envi­ron­ment and the good treat­ment of animals. ”

Civil­i­sa­tion also involves taking care of the envi­ron­ment and the good treat­ment of animals. Animals and nature have a value of their own, which is inde­pen­dent of human needs. To cher­ish the biodi­ver­sity of nature, suffi­ciently large enti­ties of vari­ous nature types must be protected. We are all respon­si­ble for the envi­ron­ment.

A civilised debate is based on facts and is construc­tive, not destruc­tive. Facts are not ques­tions of author­ity. We empha­sise deci­sion-making based on knowl­edge and rely on science as humans’ way of always striv­ing for a more accu­rate under­stand­ing of what is true and what is false. Educa­tion, science and research, as well as art and culture, are essen­tial meth­ods for a small coun­try like Finland to succeed and increase the welfare of its citi­zens. Truth is a funda­men­tal value for us.

The National Coali­tion Party contin­ues its one-hundred-year-long work in promot­ing Finnish civil­i­sa­tion, to endure educa­tion for every­one and increas­ing the nation’s educa­tion and skill level. The promo­tion of civil­i­sa­tion is an objec­tive in itself but also a method to allow Finns to adopt neces­sary crit­i­cal­ity. It is the abil­ity to assess the reli­a­bil­ity of infor­ma­tion, the readi­ness to differ­en­ti­ate between the essen­tial and inessen­tial, and the will always to place oneself on the side of honesty and truth. With­out civil­i­sa­tion, there can be no func­tional democ­racy.

We defend democ­racy always and every­where

Democ­racy is a way to disagree in a civilised manner. It allows differ­ent value worlds and beliefs to be adapted together with­out violence.

Democ­racy refers to commit­ting to common rules and their consis­tent appli­ca­tion even when it is unfavourable to one’s personal inter­est. However, democ­racy cannot be the unlim­ited author­ity of the major­ity. It is essen­tial to take care of the protec­tion of minori­ties at all levels. The National Coali­tion Party defends Finland as an open soci­ety. An open soci­ety does not exclude free commu­ni­ca­tions.

The National Coali­tion Party wishes to build Finland as a coun­try where everyone’s oppor­tu­ni­ties to partic­i­pate and influ­ence deci­sion-making are imple­mented. Local and regional democ­racy, as well as an active civil soci­ety, form the firm foun­da­tion of democ­racy. Our country’s success is built on the many strengths of its differ­ent areas.

The govern­ment and its guid­ing polit­i­cal deci­sion-making oper­ate based on people’s trust. Trust towards soci­ety is based on the fact that, if required, there is justice, and people are heard and treated equally. Regard­less of their back­ground, every­one must be treated with equal value in soci­ety.

“Repre­sen­ta­tive democ­racy is the result­ing respon­si­bil­ity of the people. ”

Repre­sen­ta­tive democ­racy is the result­ing respon­si­bil­ity of the people. It aims to produce rules, which promote the common good, and are as widely under­stood and accepted as possi­ble. On the other hand, an honest deci­sion-maker who under­stands their respon­si­bil­ity can justify unfavourable and essen­tial solu­tions. Truth­ful­ness and honesty are impor­tant values in poli­tics, and Finns are used to respect­ing them.

The National Coali­tion Party sees inter­na­tion­al­ism and its contin­ued strength­en­ing as vital for our coun­try. Finland’s member­ship in the Euro­pean Union is a value judg­ment for the National Coali­tion Party. By belong­ing to the family of Europe’s free nations, Finland has chosen to main­tain and promote EU values. These include free­dom, respect for human worth and human rights, democ­racy, equal­ity and a consti­tu­tional state. Finland must oper­ate in the EU actively, construc­tively and at its own initia­tive, promot­ing its unifor­mity and oper­at­ing capac­ity.

The National Coali­tion Party sees Finland as a fixed part of the West­ern value commu­nity, and in which it natu­rally belongs to all of its inter­na­tional insti­tutes. This applies to economic, social, envi­ron­men­tal and secu­rity-polit­i­cal collab­o­ra­tion. Strength­en­ing mili­tary coop­er­a­tion is the promo­tion of Finland’s safety.

Global trade, based on inter­na­tional agree­ments and regu­la­tions, creates wealth and welfare. Free­dom of trade reduces poverty and increases nations’ mutual, peace­ful sense of belong­ing. Finland must coher­ently oper­ate in inter­na­tional organ­i­sa­tions to remove trade barri­ers.

Finland must also take a wider scale global respon­si­bil­ity. We can offer assis­tance and exper­tise to inter­na­tional collab­o­ra­tion, for exam­ple, in compre­hen­sive crisis manage­ment and reso­lu­tion, envi­ron­men­tal and nature protec­tion, and the support of sustain­able devel­op­ment. Finland must support the imple­men­ta­tion of human rights every­where. Climate change is also the most signif­i­cant indi­vid­ual safety chal­lenge and crisis cause.

We are Finns, Nordic, Euro­peans and world citi­zens

Our culture and heritage connect us as part of a chain of gener­a­tions.

They chal­lenge to provide new mean­ings to the world and build inno­va­tions. They describe where we come from and who we are but do not define what we can or are allowed to become. The work and achieve­ments of past gener­a­tions must be appre­ci­ated because our current welfare and safety are based on hard work.

Our national and cultural iden­tity is multi-dimen­sional and constantly chang­ing. Our iden­ti­ties are strengths, not limi­ta­tions: we can both give and gain. Civil­i­sa­tion involves also involves inter­na­tional and cultural open­ness. Being Finnish is part of being Scan­di­na­vian and Euro­pean, and they are part of being Finnish.

“Patri­o­tism, which is appar­ent as an attach­ment to one’s home­land, is a posi­tive power. ”

Modern-day Finnish­ness is open and inclu­sive. Patri­o­tism, which is appar­ent as an attach­ment to one’s home­land, is a posi­tive power. t strength­ens the sense of belong­ing and the sense of secu­rity and safety. Finland will remain a calm, safe and stable state if each of its resi­dents wants to put in their own effort to develop it as their home­land. It requires main­tain­ing the values of moder­a­tion and care in both polit­i­cal oper­a­tions and each person’s every­day life.

Civilised inter­ac­tion and deal­ings between differ­ent cultures are natu­rally part of modern soci­eties, for exam­ple, in work, hobby, and local commu­ni­ties. The future is increas­ingly more inter­na­tional, and ideas are formed in global networks together with prod­ucts and services that are devel­oped based on them.

The wide-scale under­stand­ing of differ­ent cultures is an oppor­tu­nity to develop Finland into an even more open and attrac­tive coun­try where increas­ingly more active people can find their place and posi­tion. We do not toler­ate any type of discrim­i­na­tion. A civilised debate involves genuine multi-voiced­ness, inter­est in differ­ence and respect towards people with differ­ing opin­ions.

Tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment lowers and removes barri­ers so that the inter­ac­tion of the entire global commu­nity increases. We consider this to open great oppor­tu­ni­ties for all of humankind. Finland is at its strongest when its connec­tions and inter­ac­tion chan­nels in Europe and world­wide are fully used. Clos­ing up would be a path of weak­en­ing and waning.

We Finns must use conscious solu­tions to aim for a more promi­nent role in resolv­ing and prevent­ing global issues, such as envi­ron­men­tal and safety prob­lems. This is best achieved by effi­ciently and widely util­is­ing diplo­macy, science and tech­nol­ogy oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Harmony between people, the envi­ron­ment, econ­omy and tech­nol­ogy

A strong econ­omy and increas­ing tangi­ble welfare provide indi­vid­u­als, the nation and the state with inde­pen­dence, oper­at­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and secu­rity.

Polit­i­cal deci­sions must be used to free the oper­at­ing envi­ron­ment of people and busi­nesses to reach their full poten­tial and create welfare and wealth. The free­dom of entre­pre­neur­ship, which belongs to the market econ­omy, is essen­tial for all growth.

Protect­ing private prop­erty is the corner­stone of a free, civilised welfare state. Honestly acquired or gained wealth must not be taken away from anyone with­out legal grounds. In economic policy, sustain­able and wide-scale growth must be strived for while consid­er­ing the humane and envi­ron­men­tal sustain­abil­ity-related bound­ary condi­tions.

We want to safe­guard the envi­ron­ment: the beau­ti­ful forest, clean air and clear water­ways. With­out a viable globe, noth­ing else really matters. Legis­la­tion and taxa­tion must encour­age consumer behav­iour and trans­porta­tion, which causes the most negli­gi­ble envi­ron­men­tal load. Wast­ing natural resources must be consis­tently reduced, and their use must be sustain­able. Notably, the use of fossil fuels must be reduced, and the final objec­tive is to give up their use entirely.

We must move from a dispos­able econ­omy to a more sustain­able circu­lar and shar­ing econ­omy. We want to harness tech­nol­ogy in envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. We develop, try and intro­duce envi­ron­men­tally friendly meth­ods in produc­tion, distri­b­u­tion and trans­port, and the re-use of mate­ri­als.

Changes in work, as a result of tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment, are a signif­i­cant oppor­tu­nity for Finns and all of humankind. Espe­cially the growth in produc­tiv­ity due to the automa­tion of phys­i­cally labo­ri­ous and routine-based tasks increases tangi­ble welfare more than ever before.

All previ­ous tech­no­log­i­cal turn­ing points have improved and facil­i­tated people’s lives in numer­ous ways. This will continue if we can focus on taking hold of oppor­tu­ni­ties instead of fear­ing short-term threats. By devel­op­ing the educa­tion system and making the oper­a­tions of the labour markets more effi­cient, we allow people, work­ing life and soci­ety to adapt to the changes in work To succeed, a humane tech­no­log­i­cal break­through requires work, a liveli­hood from entre­pre­neur­ship and owner­ship, and the flex­i­ble and real-time adap­ta­tion of taxa­tion and social secu­rity.

The new adap­ta­tions of tech­nol­ogy must be intro­duced with­out prej­u­dice to assist people, to make all work easier, more pleas­ant, effi­cient and produc­tive. They also make every­day life smoother by expand­ing people’s abil­ity to make obser­va­tions and deci­sions in vari­ous circum­stances. New tech­nol­ogy allows people to make increas­ingly better and wider knowl­edge-based choices and take the most appro­pri­ate actions in differ­ent situ­a­tions.

It must be ensured that, although tech­nol­ogy can constantly achieve even more inde­pen­dent oper­a­tions, people continue to take respon­si­bil­ity for impor­tant ethi­cal solu­tions in the end. People’s right to privacy and deci­sions concern­ing using their personal data must be cher­ished and strength­ened. Online secu­rity is impor­tant when an increas­ingly grow­ing amount of people’s and society’s oper­a­tions are digi­talised.

The impor­tance of wide-scale civil­i­sa­tion is irre­place­able in an individual’s or society’s abil­ity to bene­fit from the ever-chang­ing devel­op­ment of tech­nol­ogy. The National Coali­tion Party wants Finland and Finns to be world lead­ers in intro­duc­ing and devel­op­ing new tech­nol­ogy. As a soci­ety, Finland must approach new meth­ods with curios­ity and excite­ment. The best tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions must be found and imple­mented by trying and accept­ing the possi­bil­ity of fail­ure.

Govern­ment offi­cials’ own partic­i­pa­tion in the markets must be kept to a limit and reserved for situ­a­tions in which it is essen­tial in terms of common inter­est or there are no private oper­a­tors. However, govern­ment offi­cials have a crucial role as the definer of rules, guar­an­tor of safety and secu­rity of supply, as well as the organ­iser of many impor­tant services. However, busi­ness oper­a­tions must primar­ily be left to be handled by compa­nies. Regu­la­tions are used to inter­vene in the markets’ oper­a­tions when regu­la­tions provide more bene­fit than harm, for exam­ple, in prevent­ing envi­ron­men­tal risks.

The success indus­tries of the future are selected from among the best ideas in a mutual compe­ti­tion in the market. Compe­ti­tion accord­ing to open and fair rules is the best way to resolve which compa­nies, prod­ucts and meth­ods are the best. Compe­ti­tion barri­ers must be removed, and the markets must be allowed to oper­ate. Scarce economic and humane resources should be unnec­es­sar­ily bound to unnec­es­sary insuf­fi­cient use. New starts and better oppor­tu­ni­ties must be avail­able with reason­able prereq­ui­sites and smoothly.

Taxa­tion must be devel­oped in a direc­tion favour­ing work­ing, busi­ness oper­a­tions, domes­tic owner­ship and other oper­a­tions that increase the welfare of Finnish citi­zens and promote envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. The tax base must be broad, and the tax rates must be as low as possi­ble. Taxa­tion must support Finland’s attrac­tive­ness as a county where work and entre­pre­neur­ship want to be carried out, and people want to invest. The func­tion­al­ity of the labour markets must be promoted so that as many as possi­ble would be employed and would have their own control of the build­ing meth­ods of their own life.

One of the major tasks for the coming decades is to create an entity of taxa­tion and social secu­rity which imple­ments a sustain­able equi­lib­rium between an individual’s finan­cial rights and oblig­a­tions. Public finances must also be kept strong so that the tax burden does not become unrea­son­able and the amount of public debt is kept under control. We oper­ate in favour of healthy public finances, so Finnish citi­zens of all ages can have the oppor­tu­nity of a func­tional welfare state, its secu­rity and services, now and in the future.

Finally

The National Coali­tion Party trusts that humans can, with their will of progres­sion and inno­va­tion, find solu­tions to chal­lenges and avoid harm­ful choices by util­is­ing science and tech­nol­ogy. Educa­tion helps people act correctly. We approach the future with posi­tive curios­ity and opti­mism. We want to build trust and under­stand­ing between people and groups of people. Above all, we believe in people’s good­will, compas­sion and empa­thy. A good life, a good Finland and a good world can be built on their basis.