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Jyrki Katainen
Katainen at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2012
Prime Minister of Finland
Incumbent
Assumed office 22 June 2011
President	Tarja Halonen Sauli Niinistö
Deputy	Jutta Urpilainen
Preceded by	Mari Kiviniemi
Deputy Prime Minister of Finland
In office 19 April 2007 – 22 June 2011
Prime Minister	Matti Vanhanen Mari Kiviniemi
Preceded by	Eero Heinäluoma
Succeeded by	Jutta Urpilainen
Minister of Finance
In office 19 April 2007 – 22 June 2011
Prime Minister	Matti Vanhanen Mari Kiviniemi
Preceded by	Eero Heinäluoma
Succeeded by	Jutta Urpilainen
Personal details
Born	(1971-10-14) 14 October 1971 (age 40) Siilinjärvi, Finland
Political party	National Coalition Party
Spouse(s)	Mervi Katainen
Alma mater	University of Tampere

Jyrki Tapani Katainen (born October 14, 1971) is the current Prime Minister of Finland and the chairman of the National Coalition Party.

Career[link]

This section requires expansion.

Katainen grew up in Siilinjärvi and was a part-time teacher until he became a member of the Siilinjärvi municipal council in 1993. He was elected member of the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) from the district of Northern Savonia in 1999, served as the vice-chairman of his party since 2001, becoming its leader in 2004.

In March 2003, he was elected Vice President of the European People's Party (EPP) for a three-year term.

In the 2007 parliamentary election, the National Coalition led by Katainen won the second place from the Social Democrats. Katainen became the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in the new cabinet with Center, National Coalition, Greens, and Swedish People's party.

In November 2008, the Financial Times named Katainen as the best finance minister in Europe.^[1] Katainen warned in 2009 that Europe's leaders must do more to prepare voters for “exit strategies” that bring spiralling public sector debts back under control, noting that "It is always politically difficult but we simply have no choice. We will have to do very painful things in forthcoming years when the economy has started to recover."^[2]

Prime Ministership (2011-present)[link]

Following the parliamentary election held on April 17, 2011, Katainen was elected Prime Minister by the new parliament and assumed office on June 22, 2011. His centre-right National Coalition Party became the largest party for the first time in the history of independent Finland.^[3][4] After long and difficult government-forming negotiations, he was elected Prime Minister by the Finnish Parliament, and his government of six parties (National Coalition, Social Democrats, Left Alliance, Greens, Swedish People's Party and Christian Democrats) was formally appointed by President Tarja Halonen on June 22, 2011.^[5]

Political views[link]

Katainen states that "the values that guide the direction of my political thinking are: liberty, equality of opportunities, education, encouragement, tolerance and caring."^[6] In 2008 Katainen supported the Vanhanen cabinet plans for tax cuts to be spread out evenly among pay earners of all income levels.^[7][8] Katainen has criticized ideologization of energy sources and has called for a smart green policy that is a mix of many energy sources. He supports providing affordable energy using nuclear power.^[9][10] Katainen has stressed that the six-party cabinet will take an active, initiative-taking foreign policy grounded in continuity.^[11] Katainen has asserted that Finland would be better off if the country welcomed work-based immigrants.^[12]

With the start of his premiership, and even before it, Katainen has strongly supported EU-co-operation and bailouts for crise-torn European countries, primarily Greece, receiving both praise and critic from the citizens. He is rather diplomatic and conciliatory by nature, and has often talked about common responsibility in his speeches.

Another important act on the government has been The Municipal Reform. The aim is to reduce the amount of municipalities from current 336 to about one third of it by 2015.

Personal life[link]

He is married to Mervi Katainen, a football player, and has 2 children. Apart from his native Finnish, he is fluent in English, French and Swedish.

He runs a marathon every year and his record is 3.54.23.^[13]

Katainen took part in 22nd World Scout Jamboree in 2011.^[14] Katainen was honorary protector of Roverway 2012 jamboree.^[15]

References[link]

External links[link]

Media related to Jyrki Katainen at Wikimedia Commons

• Jyrki Katainen's home page (Finnish)
• National Coalition Party of Finland

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Timo Soini
Member of Finnish Parliament for Uusimaa
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 April 2011
In office 19 March 2003 – 13 July 2009
Succeeded by	Pietari Jääskeläinen
Member of the European Parliament
In office 13 July 2009 – 19 April 2011
Succeeded by	Sampo Terho
Leader of True Finns Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 1997
Preceded by	Raimo Vistbacka
Personal details
Born	Timo Juhani Soini (1962-05-30) 30 May 1962 (age 50) Rauma, Finland
Nationality	Finnish
Political party	True Finns
Alma mater	University of Helsinki
Occupation	Politician
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	timosoini.fi

Timo Juhani Soini (born 30 May 1962) is a Finnish politician, and co-founder and current leader of the True Finns party. He was a member of the European Parliament from 2009 until 2011, when he returned to the Parliament of Finland. Well known as an EU-sceptic populist,^[1] he was elected a member of the Espoo city council in 2000 and the Parliament of Finland in 2003. In the 2009 European Parliament election he won a seat in the European Parliament with Finland's highest personal vote share (nearly 10% of all votes), becoming the first True Finn in the European Parliament.^[1][2]

In the 2011 parliamentary election, his party won 19.1% of the votes, which was described as "shocking" and "exceptional" by the Finnish media.^[3] Soini himself won the most votes of all candidates,^[4] leaving behind the Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb and the Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen in their Uusimaa electoral district.^[5] Helsingin Sanomat concluded that "Timo Soini rewrote the electoral history books".^[6]

Soini has become one of the internationally best-known critics of European Union bailouts and safety mechanisms. Soini's column "Why I Don't Support Europe's Bailouts" in the Wall Street Journal was the most read and emailed article of the magazine's daily European edition.^[7]

Personal background[link]

Timo Soini worked for the food company Linkosuo Oy for two summers in 1981 and 1982 and was Secretary General and Chairman of the Kehittyvän Suomen Nuorten Liitto (Youth league of developing Finland) from 1983 to 1992. He graduated as Master of Political Science from the University of Helsinki in 1988, majoring in political theory. His military rank is Corporal.^[8][9] He is a devout Roman Catholic, which he became as a result of his experiences on his many trips to Ireland.^[10] He was also influenced by the pope's anti-communism and anti-atheism.^[11] Soini has also publicly announced that he is a cordial friend of the state of Israel.^[12] According to the BBC, Soini is "a die-hard supporter" of English football club Millwall FC.^[13] Soini currently lives in the Kaitaa district of Espoo, in the Greater Helsinki area. He is married and has two children.^[8]

Political career[link]

Soini was a member of the Finnish Rural Party, and was its Secretary General from 1992. After the Rural Party dissolved following the March 1995 elections, Soini and two others filed paperwork, in mid-May 1995, to create a new political party, initially to be called the Pure Finnish Association. It was, instead, founded as the True Finns Party and two years later Soini succeeded Raimo Vistbacka as Chairman, a position he has held ever since. He ran for a seat in parliament in the spring 1999 elections, but lost. He was first elected to the parliament in 2003. Soini was his party's candidate in the 2006 Presidential election, finishing fifth out of the eight candidates in the first round, with a vote share of 3.4%. In March 2008, Soini wrote an autobiographical book called Maisterisjätkä, published by Tammi.

In 2011 he visited the party conference of UKIP, the British political party with which he has had a long friendship. He was also invited to speak at the UK Conservative Party Conference in 2011.

Parliamentary election 2011[link]

The True Finns obtained 39 seats in the 2011 election, making them the third largest party. Soini received 43 437 personal votes, the highest amount of all of the candidates.^[4] Soini managed to raise the popularity of the party from 4.1% to 19.1% in four years. Helsingin Sanomat opined in an editorial that Soini "rewrote the electoral history books".^[6] According to the BBC, behind Soini's success was "brain, wit and charisma".^[14] A political analyst^[who?] and university professor^[who?] pointed to Soini's oratorical skills and ability to appeal to common people and make complicated things look easy.^[14] The election result was also referred to as "shocking" and "exceptional".^[3] During the government negotiations following the election the True Finns decided against participating in Katainen's coalition cabinet, citing greatly differing stances on the EU, especially regarding bailouts for debt-ridden euro countries.

Political positions held[link]

His curriculum vitae on the European Parliament webpage and the Finnish Parliament webpage list the following:^[15][16]

• Pre-university school-leaving certificate (1981)
• Master of Political Science (1988)
• Youth League of Developing Finland, special correspondent of Suomen Uutiset (1983–89)
• Vice-Chair, Finnish Rural Party (1989–92)
• Party Secretary, Finnish Rural Party (1992–95)
• Chair, True Finns (1997–present)
• Member of the Finnish Parliament (2003–2009, 2011-)
• Member of the European Parliament (2009–2011)
• Member of Espoo city council (since 2001)
• Member of Espoo city executive (2006–07)
• Member, Legal Affairs Committee of the Finnish Parliament (2003–07); substitute member, Grand Committee of the Finnish Parliament (2003–07); member, Grand Committee of the Finnish Parliament (2007–09); substitute member, Legal Affairs Committee of the Finnish Parliament (2007–09)
• Chair, Foreign Affairs Committee of the Finnish Parliament (2011-); substitute member, Grand Committee of the Finnish Parliament (2011-)

Views[link]

Climate change[link]

In January 2011 Soini called for Finland to unilaterally quit all international climate change agreements. According to him, emission trading is a major financial crime in Europe. The European Union Emission Trading Scheme was introduced in 2005. Soini wanted to cancel all recent additions to the energy and environmental taxes. He used the expression: "Green taxes are like shooting yourself in the foot". Soini was criticised for acting as a brake on climate change solutions by MP Oras Tynkkynen, a Green focusing on climate policy, and for calling Finland the North Korea of climate policy by MP Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, a Social Democrat.^[17]

Religion and morals[link]

Timo Soini is a practicing Catholic. His views on religious and moral issues are in line with the teaching of the Catholic Church, including on abortion, homosexuality and women priests.^[18]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Timo Soini

• (Finnish) Official website
• Profile on the European Parliament's official website