Sari Miriam Essayah (born 21 February 1967 in

Haukivuori Haukivuori is a List of former municipalities of Finland, former municipality of Finland located in the provinces of Finland, province of Eastern Finland and part of the Southern Savonia regions of Finland, region. The municipality had a populati ...

) 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 ...

retired

racewalker Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully asse ...

and a politician, former

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) and Member of Parliament since 2015. She is the president of the Finnish

Christian Democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social ...

party. Her father is from

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. During her sports career, Essayah competed mainly in 5 000 and 10 000 metres. In the latter, she won the World Championship in 1993 and the European Championship in 1994. She made seven national records, all of which are still standing. In 2016, Essayah became a member of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

(IOC), and she has been a member of the Ethics Committee, Finnish Athletics Association since 2014.

Education

Essayah holds an M.Sc (Econ) in business administration and accounting from the

University of Vaasa The University of Vaasa ( fi, Vaasan yliopisto, sv, Vasa universitet) is a multidisciplinary, business-oriented university in Vaasa, Finland. The campus of the university is situated by the Gulf of Bothnia adjacent to downtown Vaasa. The univ ...

Political career

After retiring from sports Essayah entered politics and represented the

in 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 2003–2007 but failed to get reelected in the election of 2007. She served as the Christian Democrats' party secretary from 2007 to 2009. Essayah was elected 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 ...

in 2009 but failed to be reelected in 2014 despite her 61 000 votes. This left the Finnish Christian Democrats without MEPs in the 2014 election. In November 2011 she undertook godparenthood for

Mikola Dziadok use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates ...

, Belarusian activist and

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

. Essayah was candidate in the 2012 Finnish presidential election. She came last with 2.47 percent of the votes. In the 2015 parliamentary elections, Essayah was elected to represent a newly formed constituency of Savonia and Karelia with over 11 000 votes. She was later chosen to be the vice speaker of the Christian Democrats' Parliamentary group. In August, she was chosen as the new chair of her party after her predecessor,

Päivi Räsänen Päivi Maria Räsänen, née Kuvaja (born 19 December 1959, in Sonkajärvi, Finland), is a Finnish politician. The chairwoman of the Christian Democrats from 2004 to 2015, she was the Minister of the Interior of Finland between 2011 and 2015. A ...

, retired from the position after over ten years. Sari Essayah was re-elected in Finnish parliament in the 2019 elections and re-elected for a third term as the party chair in a party congress in August.

Other activities

* Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), Member of the Advisory Council (since 2019)Advisory Council
Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA).

Achievements

References

External links

Sari Essayah website
* * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Essayah, Sari 1967 births Living people People from Mikkeli Finnish Pentecostals Finnish evangelists Finnish people of Moroccan descent Leaders of political parties in Finland Christian Democrats (Finland) politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (2003–07) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2015–19) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2019–23) Christian Democrats (Finland) MEPs MEPs for Finland 2009–2014 21st-century women MEPs for Finland Candidates for President of Finland Finnish sportsperson-politicians Finnish female racewalkers Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Finland World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists International Olympic Committee members Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Women members of the Parliament of Finland Goodwill Games medalists in athletics Universiade gold medalists for Finland Universiade bronze medalists for Finland World Athletics Championships winners Medalists at the 1989 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 1991 Summer Universiade Competitors at the 1994 Goodwill Games