Anni Milja Maaria Sinnemäki (born 20 July 1973) is a
Finnish politician and a member of the
Finnish Parliament
The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. The ...
between 1999 and 2015, representing the
Green League
The Green League (VIHR, fi, Vihreä liitto , sv, Gröna förbundet), shortened to the Greens ( fi, Vihreät, sv, De Gröna), is a green political party in Finland.
Ideologically, the Green League is positioned on the centre-left of the polit ...
.
Biography
She was first elected to the parliament in 1999 and served as the
Minister of Labour from 2009 to 2011. She was elected chairwoman of the Green League on 16 May 2009 and sought a second term in 2011, but lost to
Ville Niinistö
Ville Matti Niinistö (born 30 July 1976) is a Finnish politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. He is a former member of parliament, former chairperson of the Green League and served as Minister of the En ...
in a party election. She has been a member of
the city council of Helsinki since 2004. She is also known for her
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
.
Sinnemäki was born in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
. She has a
B.A. degree in
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...
from the
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...
. Her daughter, Siiri, was born in 1990, when Sinnemäki was sixteen. Sinnemäki is the author of a series of Finnish pop lyrics of the 1990s and early 2000s for the band
Ultra Bra
Ultra Bra was a Finnish band, formed in 1994 by Olli Virtaperko and Kerkko Koskinen, and disbanded in 2001.
Band history
In 1994, Olli Virtaperko heard about a political song contest held by the Finnish Democratic Youth League (predecessor of ...
. She was married to the founder of the band, Kerkko Koskinen, from 1996 to 2001. She married Anton Monti in 2012 and they have a son, Rufus, born in 2012.
Sinnemäki has stated that her greatest disappointment in her political career is the decision on nuclear power in 2002. On the other hand, the law on civil partnerships was the biggest victory of her political career.
Sinnemäki has defended the raising of
development aid to 0.7% of
GDP in parliament budget negotiations. She has also defended public transportation, municipal funding and funding for the treatment of prisoners.
Sinnemäki left the parliament in 2015, after she was elected
Deputy Mayor
The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor, assistant mayor, or mayor ''pro tem'') is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many, but not all, local governments.
Duties and functions
Many elected dep ...
of Helsinki.
References
External links
The official website of Anni Sinnemäki
1973 births
Living people
Politicians from Helsinki
Green League politicians
Ministers of Labour of Finland
Members of the Parliament of Finland (1999–2003)
Members of the Parliament of Finland (2003–07)
Members of the Parliament of Finland (2007–11)
Members of the Parliament of Finland (2011–15)
Women government ministers of Finland
21st-century Finnish women politicians
Women members of the Parliament of Finland
University of Helsinki alumni
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