Karkkila

Karkkila [ kɑrk ilɑ ː ] ( swedish Högfors ) is a city in southern Finland with 9125 inhabitants ( 31 December 2012). It is located in the countryside Uusimaa about 60 km northwest of the capital, Helsinki. Karkkila is monolingual Finnish speakers.

Karkkila is located on the ancient trade route between malice and the coast. This settlement was built on the shores of Lake Pahajärvi. As a church community was founded in 1654, this was the more Christian names Pyhajarvi ( " holy lake " ) instead Pahajärvi ( "bad lake "). 1869 Pyhajarvi became an independent municipality with the name Pyhajarvi Ul. Here, the suffix ul for Uudenmaan was lääni ( Uusimaa ) and served to distinguish Pyhajarvi Ol in the former province of Oulu. The present center of Karkkila was isolated in 1932 by Pyhajarvi and became a market town Karkkila. 1969 Pyhajarvi Ul and Karkkila reunited under the name Karkkila, 1977, the church became a town.

Attraction for visitors to the city are the rapids of the river Karjaanjoki which connects the city with the sea.

Since the beginning of the 19th century was near Karkkila iron ore. The industrial tradition began in 1822 with the construction of the ironworks Högfors. Since then Karkkila developed into an industrial city. Her best times employed alone Ironworks half of the working population. To date, the proportion of employees in the industrial sector with 45,6 % ( 2003) is high. Accordingly, much the labor movement has been in Karkkila always. Today, the post-communist Left Alliance, the largest political group in the city council. In addition to Kemi in Lapland Karkkila is the only city in which the Left Alliance is the strongest party.

Since 1997 Karkkila is member of European Cities Association Douzelage.

Policy

Management Karkkila is traditionally an industrial city, a stronghold of the Finnish left. The strongest political force here is none of the three Finnish political parties, but the Left Alliance, which with a vote share of 32.4 % here scored one of his nationally best results in the local elections in 2008 and now 12 out of 35 seats in the city council, the highest decision-making body in municipal Affairs issues. The Socialists ask as well as the conservative National Coalition Party 7 seats, followed by the Centre Party with five seats. Two seats went to the right-wing populist " True Finns, " each one to the Greens and the Christian Democrats.