Matti Allan Ahde (23 December 1945 – 20 December 2019) was 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 from the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

. Ahde was born in

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

. He was a member of the parliament from 1970 to 1990, when he left to become CEO of the

state monopoly In economics, a government monopoly or public monopoly is a form of coercive monopoly in which a government agency or government corporation is the sole provider of a particular good or service and competition is prohibited by law. It is a monopoly ...

Veikkaus Veikkaus Oy is the Finnish government-owned betting agency which holds a monopoly in the country. It was formed in 2017 as a merger of three previously existing betting and gambling agencies of Veikkaus, Fintoto and Finland's Slot Machine Assoc ...

. Ahde held minister posts in Sorsa's cabinets 1982–1987 and was elected Speaker of the Parliament in 1987. He was replaced as the speaker by

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 ...

in 1989 when Sorsa stepped down from Holkeri's cabinet to make the position available for party chairman Pertti Paasio. Ahde quit as CEO of Veikkaus in 2001 and was re-elected to the parliament in 2003. On 20 December 2019, Ahde died of pancreatic cancer at his home 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 ...

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