An election to the Eduskunta was held on 17 April 2011. Advance voting, including Finnish expatriates, was held between 6 and 12 April with a turnout of 31.2%. All 200 seats of the parliament were open for election. Total turnout rose to 70.5% from 67.9% in the previous election.
Small differences in the opinion polls for the traditional three big parties (the National Coalition Party, Centre Party and the Social Democrats) and the surprising rise of the True Finns electrified the atmosphere ahead of the election and intensified its international interest because of a possible consequence on an EU bailout programme for Portugal.
The election resulted in a breakthrough for the True Finns, with every other parliamentary party in mainland Finland losing popularity. The absolute vote for the True Finns increased almost five-fold from the previous election, and the seat count rose from 5 to 39, making them the third-largest party. The Centre Party lost the most seats as their popular vote decreased by one-third. The National Coalition Party became the largest party for the first time. The Social Democrats also lost seats, but ended up with more seats than the previous winner Centre Party, and thus restored their position as the second largest party.
Three of the four incumbent governing parties lost a combined 27 seats: The National Coalition Party lost six seats, the Centre Party lost 16 seats and the Green League lost five seats. Only the Swedish People's Party held on to the same number of seats. Incumbent Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi's coalition thus ended up with 99 seats, losing majority in the parliament by two seats.
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