Matti Vanhanen
Matti Vanhanen Taneli [ mɑt ː i vɑnhɑnɛn ] (* November 4, 1955 in Jyväskylä ) is a Finnish politician. From 2003 to 2010 he was Finnish Prime Minister. Since 1975 he is a member of the Finnish Centre Party ( Suomen Keskusta ), whose vice chairman, he whose chairman he was from October 2003 to June 2010 in 2000. Vanhanen has a degree in political science.
Life
Matti Vanhanen was born in 1955 as the second of three sons of the political scientist Tatu Vanhanen and Anni Tiihonen. After graduating from high school in 1975 and the military service, he studied political science at the University of Helsinki. In 1989 he graduated with a masters in social sciences.
From 1985 to 1991 he worked as a journalist for the local newspaper Kehäsanomat, 1988 as its editor.
In 1991 he was chairman of the youth wing of the Centre Party and was first elected to the Finnish parliament. His themes were environmental issues in the first place. He said, for example, against a fifth nuclear power plant in Finland, although he sat on the Board of the Finnish electricity company Fortum simultaneously.
On 17 April 2003, he was Minister of Defence in the Cabinet Anneli Jäätteenmäkis. Following the resignation Jäätteenmäkis he followed her on 24 June 2003 by the Office of the Prime Minister.
In the Finnish presidential elections in 2006 Matti Vanhanen ran as candidate of the Centre Party. He scored in the first ballot on January 15, 2006 vote share of 18.6 %, falling short of a place in the runoff.
With the regular acquisition of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union by Finland on 1 July 2006 Vanhanen acted in his capacity as the Finnish Prime Minister for six months as EU president.
After the 2007 General Election Vanhanen formed a government of his party, the National Coalition Party, the Greens Federation and the Swedish People's Party. On 18 June 2010 Vanhanen announced his resignation as Finnish Prime Minister. He had announced his retirement for health reasons in December 2009. As the successor Mari Kiviniemi Vanhanen was elected on 22 June 2010, which had already assumed the chair of the Centre Party.
Private
Vanhanen was married from 1985 to 2005 with Merja Vanhanen and has a daughter ( Annastiina, born 1991) and a son ( Juhana, born 1994) with her.
After the divorce, he had a nine-month relationship with Susan Ruusunen, the intimate details published in the tabloid press and the book Pääministerin morsian (Eng. The Bride of the Prime Minister ) after the relationship end. This was reflected in the public is not particularly well received. Some bookstores refused to take the book in their range, and more than 60,000 people signed an online petition against the publication. Vanhanen sued Ruusunen in March 2007 for violation of his privacy, was only rejected, but received by the appellate court. In June 2010 Ruusunen and her publisher Ojala were ultimately convicted by the Supreme Court of Finland to pay fines amounting to 20 or 60 daily for invasion of privacy. In addition Vanhanen pain and suffering in the amount of 1,000 euros was awarded.
In March 2009, Matti Vanhanen engaged to Sirkka -Liisa Mertala. The engagement was dissolved again in July 2010, according to Ilta - Sanomat.