Eero Rantala (5 October 1941–5 February 2019) was a Finnish politician who held several cabinet posts in late 1970s. He was a member of the

Social Democratic Party of Finland The Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP, fi, Suomen sosialidemokraattinen puolue ; sv, Finlands socialdemokratiska parti), shortened to the Social Democrats ( fi, link=no, Sosiaalidemokraatit; sv, link=no, Socialdemokrater) and commonly kno ...

Biography

Rantala was born in Helsinki on 5 October 1941. He served in the Finnish army with the rank of

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a s ...

. Then he worked at different cooperatives in research and management positions. Rantala joined the Social Democratic Party of Finland. His first cabinet post was the minister of trade and industry to which he was appointed on 30 November 1975. He held the post until 29 September 1976 in the second cabinet led by

Martti Miettunen Martti Juhani Miettunen (17 April 1907 – 19 January 2002), was a Finnish politician who served twice as Finland's prime minister, from 1961 to 1962 and again from 1975 to 1977. Miettunen was born in Simo, the son of a smallholder. He studi ...

. Rantala was appointed minister of trade and industry on 15 May 1977 to the second cabinet of

Kalevi Sorsa Taisto Kalevi Sorsa (21 December 1930 – 16 January 2004) was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland three times: 1972–1975, 1977–1979 and 1982–1987. At the time of his death he still held the record for most day ...

and remained in office until 26 May 1979. Rantala also held the post of the

minister of interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and iden ...

in the same cabinet between 2 March 1978 and 26 May 1979. Following his retirement from ministerial posts Rantala was appointed the director of the OTK cooperative's food group and became the general director of the company in 1981. He was the first president of the Eka-Yhtymä, a multi-sector cooperative group, and assumed the post between 1983 and 1994. (subscription required) Next he worked in Germany and was involved in the privatization and investment projects of the former East German industrial companies. Rantala was appointed by the Finnish Prime Ministry as an investigator in October 2002 to examine the cooperation between Finland and Germany to promote the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

's Northern Dimension action program. Rantala founded the Eero Rantala Fund in 1991 which awards a music prize. Rantala was married to Seija-Leena Rantala. He died in Helsinki on 5 February 2019 at the age of 77.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rantala, Eero 1941 births 2019 deaths Government ministers of Finland Ministers of the interior of Finland Politicians from Helsinki Social Democratic Party of Finland politicians Finnish Army personnel