Abstract
This article deals with a position of the president in the Finnish political system. Its aim is to prove that the Finnish political system has changed from a semipresidential to a parliamentary one.
Therefore it analyzes the reduction of presidential prerogatives within the system. Finland was established as an independent parliamentary republic with a strong president in 1919.
When the former prime minister, Mauno Koivisto, took the presidential office in 1982, a process of parlamentarization of the Finnish political system started. Presidential prerogatives were slowly reduced as Koivisto had experienced a „strong hand“ by the preceding president Urho Kekkonen.
The constitutional changes he had initiated were later built into a new constitution of 1999, during Martti Ahtisaari’s presidency. Nowadays, a power of a Finnish president (currently Tarja Halonen) corresponds to a presidential power in other parliamentary regimes.