The Finnish Rural Party (, SMP; , FLP) was an agrarian and populist political party in Finland. Starting as a breakaway faction of the Agrarian League in 1959 as the Small Peasants' Party of Finland (Suomen Pientalonpoikien Puolue), the party was identified with the person of Veikko Vennamo, a former Agrarian League Member of Parliament known for his opposition to the politics of President Urho Kekkonen. Vennamo was chairman of the Finnish Rural Party between 1959 and 1979. Support for the party was at its highest in the 1970s and 1980s, with its share of the votes reaching around 10 percent in some parliamentary elections. In the 1990s, the party fell into financial trouble and was disbanded in 1995 (formally dissolved in 2003). The Finns Party is the successor of the Finnish Rural Party. History The founder of the Finnish Rural Party was Veikko Vennamo, leader of a faction in the Agrarian League (which was renamed Centre Party in 1965). The relations of Veikko Vennamo and the Agrarian League's strong man Urho Kekkonen were icy at best, and after Kekkonen was elected president in 1956 Vennamo ran into serious disagreement with the party secretary, Arvo Korsimo, and was excluded from the parliamentary group. As a result, he immediately founded his own party in 1959. Small Peasants' Party of Finland Small Peasants' Party of Finland (Suomen Pientalonpoikien Puolue) was established in 1959. The founders of the party were members of the Agrarian League. The leader of the party, Veikko Vennamo, resided as the head of The Department of Housing and Land Reform with relations to the Carelian refugees after the Continuation war. Vennamos skisma with his own party started when V. J. Sukselainen was elected the chairman of the Agrarian League. Ideologically the split began in December, 1957, when Mr. Paavo Ojalehto from Northern Finland wrote a letter to the board of the members of the Agrarian League claiming, that the party secretary of the Agrarian League, Mr. Arvo Korsimo did not meet the traditional moral values and did not appreciate chastity. The only member supporting Ojalehto's claim was Veikko Vennamo. Vennamo was not allowed to take part in party the parliamentary group of the Agragian League in the parliament of Finland for a set period of time in 1958. Suomen Pientalonpoikien puolue was registered in the end of 1958. The only MP of the party was Veikko Vennamo. As Johannes