Antti Kaikkonen | |
---|---|
![]() Kaikkonen in 2019. | |
Minister of Defence | |
In office 28 February –20 June 2023 | |
Prime Minister | Sanna Marin |
Preceded by | Mikko Savola |
Succeeded by | Antti Häkkänen |
In office 6 June 2019 –5 January 2023 | |
Prime Minister |
|
Preceded by | Jussi Niinistö |
Succeeded by | Mikko Savola |
Member of the Finnish Parliament for Uusimaa | |
Assumed office 19 March 2003 | |
Leader of the Centre Party | |
Assumed office 15 June 2024 | |
Preceded by | Annika Saarikko |
Personal details | |
Born | Antti Samuli Kaikkonen 14 February 1974 Turku,Southwest Finland,Finland |
Political party | Centre |
Occupation | Politician |
Antti Samuli Kaikkonen (born 14 February 1974 in Turku,Finland) is a Finnish politician who has served as chair of the Centre Party since June 2024. [1] He has been a member of the Finnish Parliament from Uusimaa since 2003. He served as Minister of Defence from 2019 to 2023. Kaikkonen was the president of Finnish Centre Youth from 1997 to 2001. He has also been a member of Finnish Delegation to the Council of Europe since 2004. [2]
In 2013,Kaikkonen was convicted of corruption charges stemming from a campaign financing scandal. [3]
On 21 June 2016,Kaikkonen was chosen as the chairman of the Centre Party's parliamentary group. [4]
By 2019,Kaikkonen was parliamentary head of the coalition-leading Centre Party. Amidst the Oulu child sexual exploitation scandal,he called for all party heads in Parliament to meet,and declared "everyone who comes to Finland has to follow the local laws". [5]
In the autumn of 2009,Kaikkonen received his share of the campaign finance. At that time,it was brought to public,that the Youth Foundation,of which Kaikkonen had been the chairman of the board since 2003,had distributed election support money to Kaikkonen,in municipal-,parliamentary-,and European Parliament -elections. In addition,it had also financed Matti Vanhanen's presidential election campaign,among other things. [6] Kaikkonen resigned from the chairman's place,and then stayed as a member of the board. [7]
The prosecutor demanded Kaikkonen's imprisonment in the Youth Foundation bribery trial,that began on 16 January 2012. In January 2013,the Helsinki District Court sentenced Kaikkonen to five months in conditional discharge for abuse of trust. [8] He did not appeal his verdict. [9]
Kaikkonen has two children;Kaikkonen announced that he would take parental leave in early 2023. [10]
The Green League,shortened to the Greens,is a green political party in Finland. Ideologically,the Green League is positioned on the centre-left of the political spectrum. It is a reformist party and it is supportive of feminism,animal rights and green liberal ideas.
The Centre Party,officially the Centre Party of Finland,is an agrarian-centrist political party in Finland. Ideologically,the Centre Party is positioned in the centre of the political spectrum. It has been described as liberal,social-liberal,liberal-conservative,and conservative-liberal. The party’s leader is Antti Kaikkonen,who was elected in June 2024 to succeed former minister Annika Saarikko. As of June 2023,the party has been part of the parliamentary opposition.
Matti Taneli Vanhanen is a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland from 2003 to 2010. He was also Chairman of the Centre Party in 2006. In his earlier career,he was a journalist. Vanhanen is the son of professor Tatu Vanhanen and Anni Tiihonen.
The Social Democratic Party of Finland is a social democratic and pro-European political party in Finland. It is the third largest party in the Parliament of Finland with 43 seats. Founded in 1899 as the Workers' Party of Finland,the SDP is Finland's oldest active political party and has a close relationship with the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions. It is also a member of the Party of European Socialists,Progressive Alliance,Socialist International and SAMAK.
Annika Virpi Irene Saarikko is a Finnish politician and minister who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Finland from 2020 to 2023. She served as the leader of the Finnish Centre Party from 2020 to 2024.
Antti Juhani Rinne is a Finnish politician who served as speaker of the Parliament of Finland from April to June 2019 and Prime Minister of Finland from June to December 2019. He led the Social Democratic Party from 2014 until 2020. In August 2023,he was hired as the General Secretary of SAMAK for a three-year term.
Antti Petteri Orpo is a Finnish politician currently serving as the prime minister of Finland since 2023 and as the leader of the National Coalition Party since 2016. He briefly served as speaker of the Parliament of Finland after the 2023 parliamentary election.
Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 14 April 2019. For the first time,no party received more than 20% of the vote. The Centre Party,which had been the largest party following the 2015 elections,dropped to fourth place,losing 18 seats and recording its lowest vote share since 1917. The Social Democratic Party saw the biggest gains,winning six more seats and narrowly becoming the largest party for the first time since 1999. The Green League and the Left Alliance also gained five and four seats respectively.
Li Sigrid Andersson is a Finnish politician who served as Minister of Education from 2019 to 2023. The leader of the Left Alliance,she has been a Member of Parliament since 2015. She is also a city councillor of Turku and was the chair of the party's youth wing,Left Youth.
Katri Briitta Ilona Kulmuni is a Finnish politician who served as the 35th deputy prime minister of Finland and the leader of the Centre Party between 2019 and 2020. A member of the Centre Party,she has been a Member of Parliament since 2015.
Citizens' Party was a Finnish political party,founded in 2016. It was founded by the long-time Centre Party politician and MEP Paavo Väyrynen,who left Centre in early 2016. Väyrynen acted as the first chairman of the party until July 2017,when he was succeeded by Sami Kilpeläinen.
Sanna Mirella Marin is a Finnish former politician who served as prime minister of Finland from 2019 to 2023 and as the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP) from 2020 to 2023. She was a Member of Parliament from 2015 to 2023. She was re-elected as member of parliament in April 2023 but resigned from her position in the Finnish parliament to become a strategic adviser on political leaders' reform programmes in the Tony Blair Institute in September 2023.
Laura Huhtasaari is a Finnish politician and teacher. As a member of the Finns Party,she has represented Satakunta in the Parliament of Finland from April 2015 to July 2019. She was the Finns Party candidate for the 2018 Finnish presidential election. In 2019 Huhtasaari was elected to the European Parliament with 92,760 votes
Movement Now is an economically liberal political party in Finland.
Finnish People First was a nationalist political party in Finland. It was founded in 2018 and de-registered in 2023 after failing to win seats in two consecutive parliamentary elections. In July 2023,the party filed for bankruptcy and announced its dissolution.
Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 2 April 2023 to elect members of the Parliament of Finland.
The cabinet of Antti Rinne was the 75th government of Finland. It was formed following the parliamentary election of 2019 and was formally appointed by President Sauli Niinistöon 6 June 2019. The cabinet consisted of a coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party,the Centre Party,the Green League,the Left Alliance,and the Swedish People's Party. The cabinet's Prime Minister was Antti Rinne.
Maria Karoliina Ohisalo is a Finnish politician and researcher who served as Minister of the Interior between 2019 and 2021. The former chairman of the Green League,she has been a Member of Parliament since 2019.
The HX Fighter Program is a fighter jet procurement program of the Finnish Ministry of Defence,aiming to acquire multirole fighters for Finland to replace the current Hornet fighters. If completed,the acquisition will be the most expensive state purchase ever made by Finland. The project started in autumn 2015 and the Government decided to procure 64 Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft in December 2021. According to the project schedule,the new aircraft would arrive in Finland around 2025–2030.
Antti Kaikkonen, parliamentary head of the coalition-leading Centre Party, called for a meeting of all the parliamentary party heads, tweeting: "Everyone who comes to Finland has to follow the local laws."