Helsinki--The Nordic republic of Finland goes to the polls on Sunday in legislative elections amid growing discontent over a floundering economy undergoing a painful restructuring.
It has been a member of the European Union since 1995, and was a founding member of the eurozone in 1999.
The following is a factfile on Finland, a country of 5.4 million people on the Baltic Sea, bordering Russia from which it gained independence in 1917.
ECONOMY: Finland is a Nordic welfare state, where a high taxation level funds universal social benefits. It underwent a year of economic stagnation in 2014, with GDP contracting 0.1 percent after two years of recession.
The two pillars of the country's economy, the forestry sector and technology industry led by one-time giant Nokia, have shrunk dramatically, while two of Finland's biggest trading partners, Russia and the eurozone, are slogging through their own economic woes.
Gross domestic product in 2014 was $221.0 billion, or a per capita income of $40,347. The trend unemployment rate is 9.2 percent, its highest level since 2003.
HISTORY: After around 600 years of Swedish rule, Finland became an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire in 1809, and declared independence on December 6, 1917.
After the war of independence, Finland suffered a bitter civil war, and during World War II it fought two Soviet invasions. During the Cold War Finland, on the Western side of the Iron Curtain, pursued a policy of military non-alignment known as "Finlandisation".
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS: Parliamentary democracy with a unicameral parliament of 200 members, elected for a four-year term by direct popular vote under a system of proportional representation.
Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, the head of the conservative National Coalition Party which was the big winner in the last legislative elections in 2011, has only headed the left-right government since June.
Ahead of Sunday's poll the party is credited with barely 17 percent of votes, neck-and-neck with the Social Democrats and the right-wing eurosceptic Finns Party, and far behind the agrarian-liberal Centre Party which is expected to come out on top, credited with 24 percent of voter support.
Finnish conservative and pro-European President Sauli Niinistoe was elected by direct popular vote for a six-year term in 2012.
ARMED FORCES: Finland is militarily non-aligned, with a largely-conscript 22,200-strong armed forces. It maintains a mobilisation strength of about 285,000.
Finland is not a member of NATO, but participates in the alliance's Partnership for Peace programme and provides troops for crisis management operations led by the EU and the UN.
AFP
