Matti Vanhanen

Matti Taneli Vanhanen (born November 4, 1955, in Jyväskylä) is the current Prime Minister of Finland, (as of July 2003) chairman of the Centre Party, and president of the EU. Vanhanen has a university education in political science, and is regarded as an expert on EU matters.

He has worked as a journalist and was editor of Kehäsanomat 1985-1988 and editor-in-chief 1988-1991. He was the chairman of the Union of Centre Youth, the youth organisation of the Centre Party, 1980-1983. In 1991 he was elected a member of Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta). He was primarily interested in ecological issues. For instance, Vanhanen spoke against building a fifth nuclear power plant in Finland, at the same serving on the board of electricity corporation Fortum.

Another important topic for Vanhanen was Finland's foreign and security policy. As a specialist on the European Union he was a member of the European Union Constitutional Convention. There he criticized the president of the convention Giscard d'Estaing as authoritarian. Vanhanen has said ^* that he is unenthusiastic about European co-operation, and that he is an "EU pragmatist", so he may be considered an eurosceptic especially when compared to his EU-enthusiast predecessor Paavo Lipponen. In 2003 he became Minister of Defense in the cabinet of Prime Minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki, and resigned from the Constitutional Convention. After Jäätteenmäki's resignation, Vanhanen was elected Prime Minister by the parliament.

Vanhanen has been characterised as uncharismatic and even boring, which he has attempted to turn to his advantage in tense political situations. The veteran politician Seppo Kääriäinen has joked that Vanhanen is the most honest man in the party.

Vanhanen has two children and says that his family and chopping wood are his two primary interests. Vanhanen is known for being teetotal, saying that he doesn't like the taste of alcohol ^*. His father is the controversial professor Tatu Vanhanen, co-author of IQ and the Wealth of Nations.

Matti Vanhanen and his wife Merja Vanhanen unexpectedly announced their divorce on 6 April 2005, which could have political repercussions for the self-styled family man.

As the Centre Party candidate, Vanhanen challenged president Tarja Halonen in the 2006 Finnish presidential election, but did not qualify for the runoff. He received 18.6% of the vote, coming third to the National Coalition party's Sauli Niinistö (24.1%) and Social Democrat and incumbent Tarja Halonen (46.3%). Vanhanen expressed his support for Niinistö in the runoff election.

In a 2006 book commissioned for the presidential elections, Se on ihan Matti, Vanhanen compared the Finnish tabloid press to the KGB and Stasi, former Soviet Union and East German secret police agencies ^*.

External links

www.mattivanhanen.net (in Finnish)

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