Kai Aslak Mykkänen (born 31 July 1979 in

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

politician and the former Minister of the Interior. He represents the

National Coalition Party sv, Samlingspartiet , leader1_title = Chairman , leader1_name = Petteri Orpo , leader2_title = Deputy chairs , leader2_name = Antti Häkkänen Elina ValtonenAnna-Kaisa Ikonen , merger = Finnish Party, Young Finnis ...

in the

Uusimaa Uusimaa (; sv, Nyland, ; both lit. 'new land') is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme), and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, He ...

electoral district.

Early life

Mykkänen was born in

to the journalist and politician Jouni Mykkänen and Maria Mykkänen (née Sokolow). He is of Russian descent through his mother, who is a daughter of Russian emigrants. His home language was mainly Finnish, but he also speaks fluent

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

. He has worked three years in Russia.

Political career

Mykkänen was the chairman of the Coalition Party Youth League 2000–2001. He was a member of the City Council of Espoo 2001–2008. Mykkänen was elected to the Parliament of Finland in the 2015 election with 5,260 votes. He was a member of the Environment Committee and Grand Committee from 2015 until 2016. On 22 June 2016, Mykkänen was appointed as the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development in the

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Juha Sipilä Juha Petri Sipilä (; born 25 April 1961) is a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland from 2015 to 2019. A relative newcomer to politics, he has a successful background in business. He was the leader of the Centre Party fro ...

after

Lenita Toivakka Lenita Anneli Toivakka (born 28 September 1961 in Helsinki) is a Finnish politician and a member of National Coalition Party. Political career Toivakka is the former Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade and Minister for Foreign Trade ...

's resignation. On 6 February 2018, Mykkänen shifted his portfolio in order to replace

Paula Risikko Paula Risikko (born 4 June 1960, Ylihärmä) is a Finnish politician. She is from Seinäjoki and represents the National Coalition Party sv, Samlingspartiet , leader1_title = Chairman , leader1_name = Petteri Orpo , leader2_titl ...

as the

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

. In this capacity, he also co-chaired the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers Meeting of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

(EPP), alongside

Esteban González Pons Esteban González Pons (Valencia, Spain, Valencia, Spain, 21 August 1964) is a Spanish politician of the People's Party (Spain), People's Party (PP) who has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2014. Early life and career Married, and w ...

Other activities

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

, Ex-Officio Alternate Member of the Board of Governors (2016-2018)

Political positions

As Minister of the Interior, Mykkänen proposed in 2018 to increase Europe's quota refugee system ten-fold, for the EU to receive 250,000 new asylum seekers per year instead of the current 25,000. When the

Oulu child sexual exploitation scandal In December 2018, it transpired that adult men, all of whom had arrived in Finland as asylum seekers or refugees, were grooming, and raping and otherwise sexually abusing, girls under 15 years of age in Oulu, Finland. One victim ended up comm ...

broke out, Mykkänen said these things shouldn't be occurring in Finland and called for immigrants residing at reception centres to be educated.

Personal life

Mykkänen has two children with his wife Anna.

References

, - 1979 births Living people People from Espoo Finnish people of Russian descent National Coalition Party politicians Government ministers of Finland Ministers of the Interior of Finland Members of the Parliament of Finland (2015–19) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2019–23) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2023–27) {{NationalCoalition-politician-stub