Erkki Tuomioja
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| Erkki Tuomioja | |
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Member of the Parliament of Finland
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| Assumed office 22 March 1991 |
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| Constituency | Helsinki |
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| In office 23 March 1970 – 23 March 1979 |
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| Constituency | Helsinki |
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| In office 25 February 2000 – 18 April 2007 |
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| President | Tarja Halonen |
| Prime Minister | Paavo Lipponen Anneli Jäätteenmäki Matti Vanhanen |
| Preceded by | Tarja Halonen |
| Succeeded by | Ilkka Kanerva |
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| Born | July 1, 1946 Helsinki, Finland |
| Nationality | Finnish |
| Political party | SDP |
| Spouse | Marja Helena Rajala (1978-) |
| Religion | Atheist |
| Website | http://www.tuomioja.org/ |
Erkki Sakari Tuomioja (born 1 July 1946) was the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland between 2000 and 2007. He is currently a member of the Finnish Parliament. He is considered to be one of the most widely read politicians still active on the political stage in Finland.
Tuomioja is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, although his political views are thought to be more to the left than the party line. He is also a member of ATTAC. At one point Tuomioja dated current Finnish president Tarja Halonen.
Tuomioja comes from a family of politicians. His father Sakari Tuomioja was a prominent liberal Finnish politician and diplomat, and the challenger of Urho Kekkonen for the conservatives and liberals in the 1956 presidential elections. His maternal grandmother was Hella Wuolijoki, the Estonian born writer and communist activist.
Tuomioja holds the degrees of Master of Social Sciences (1971) and Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration (1974) from the Helsinki School of Economics), as well as Licentiate in Social Sciences (1980) and Doctor in Social Sciences (1996) from the University of Helsinki. In addition to Finnish, he speaks Swedish, English, French, German and Estonian.
Tuomioja has been a member of Parliament of Finland 1970–1979 and 1991–. He was Minister of Trade and Industry in Lipponen's 2nd government, and rose to be Minister of Foreign Affairs after Tarja Halonen was elected the President of Finland.
Tuomioja, like several other Finnish socialist politicians of today, took part in the illegal occupation of the Old Student House (Vanha ylioppilastalo) in Helsinki on 25 November 1968. He was member of the anti-war group Committee of 100 of Finland and took part in the so-called Erik Schüller case, in which a group of students made public incitement against obligatory conscription. Despite his anti-war stance, Tuomioja did carry out his own military service and is a reservist sergeant.
Tuomioja is the author of several books. His A Delicate Shade of Pink about his grandmother Hella Wuolijoki and her sister Salme Pekkala won the Non-Fiction Finlandia Prize in 2006. The book was originally written in English and translated to Finnish as Häivähdys punaista.
Tuomioja is a declared atheist.
[edit] EU Presidency
When Finland held the rotating EU Presidency in the second half of 2006, Tuomioja had a prominent role as the spokesman of European Union foreign policy. He was among the first to demand an immediate cessation of hostilities in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.
[edit] External links
- Official website (partly in English) at the Finnish parliament
- Personal website
- Finland's EU Presidency
| Preceded by Tarja Halonen |
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Finland) 2000–2007 |
Succeeded by Ilkka Kanerva |
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