Oras Tynkkynen (Topi Oras Kalevi Tynkkynen, born 1977) was a Member of the

Parliament of Finland 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 ...

, 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 ...

. Tynkkynen was the chair of the Green parliamentary group. He served as Prime Minister

Matti Vanhanen Matti Taneli Vanhanen (; born 4 November 1955) is a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland from 2003 to 2010. He was also Chairman of the Centre Party and President of the European Council in 2006. In his earlier career, h ...

's Advisor on Climate Policy. Also Tynkkynen is a Member of the City Council of

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

and an environmental activist. He has also held positions in numerous other organisations, such as

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...

Finland. Oras Tynkkynen became a member of Parliament in 2004 as a replacement when

Satu Hassi Satu Maijastiina Hassi (born 3 June 1951) is a Finnish politician, and former Member of the European Parliament for the Green League. She served as the Minister of Environment and Development Co-Operation in Paavo Lipponen's second cabinet betw ...

left her seat upon her election to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

. He was directly elected to the Parliament in 2007. Tynkkynen was born in

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city and municipality in Finland in the western part of the Finnish Lakeland. It is located about 150 km north-east from Tampere, the third largest city in Finland; and about 270 km north from Helsinki, the capital of ...

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 ...

. He graduated from the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the

University of Tampere The University of Tampere (UTA) ( fi, Tampereen yliopisto (Tay), ) was a public university in Tampere, Finland that was merged with Tampere University of Technology to create the new Tampere University on 1 January 2019. The university offered un ...

. From the age of 14 he has been active in environmental and developmental organizations. He is a founding member of Friends of the Earth Finland and has been its vice president in 1996-1997 and in the spring of 2004. Tynkkynen has written articles in many newspapers and has been a reporter for

YLE Yleisradio Oy (Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founde ...

's radio news. His writings often concentrate on equity and the environment, especially climate change. Tynkkynen is running for election to the European Parliament.Campaign website

Personal life

He was the first openly gay Member of the

, but has since been joined by others, such as Jani Toivola and

Silvia Modig Anna Silvia Modig (born 8 July 1976) is a Finnish politician; and a former journalist, and radio and TV host. She was a member of the Parliament of Finland 2011–2019, representing the Left Alliance, and was elected to the European Parliament in ...

. In his free time he enjoys

sport Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...

s, reading, electronic music and travel.

References

External links

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Official website
1977 births Living people People from Jyväskylä Green League politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (2003–07) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2007–11) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2011–15) Gay politicians Finnish LGBT politicians Waldorf school alumni University of Tampere alumni LGBT legislators {{Finland-politician-stub