Miika Sebastian Tynkkynen (born 8 March 1989 in

Lohtaja Lohtaja ( sv, Lochteå) is a former municipality of Finland. Lohtaja was consolidated with the city of Kokkola on January 1, 2009. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Ostrobothnia region. The former mun ...

) is a Finnish politician. He has been chairman of the Finns Party Youth and third vice chairman of the

Finns Party The Finns Party, formerly known as the True Finns ( fi, Perussuomalaiset, PS, sv, Sannfinländarna, Sannf.), is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The ...

. He was elected as a member of

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 ...

in April 2019 and was a candidate as

Member of 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 ...

for the 2019 elections.

Biography

Early life

Tynkkynen was raised 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: ...

. In 2011 he participated in the reality television show '' Big Brother''. He studies to become a classroom teacher ( M. Ed.) in the

University of Oulu The University of Oulu ( fi, Oulun yliopisto) is one of the largest universities in Finland, located in the city of Oulu. It was founded on July 8, 1958. The university has around 13,000 students and 2,900 staff. 21 International Master's P ...

Political career

In 2012 he joined the Finns Party and ran for the City Council of Oulu, receiving 232 votes and being not elected. In November 2014 Tynkkynen was elected chairman of the Finns Party Youth. He received 1,474 votes in the 2015 parliamentary election and was not elected to the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. However, Tynkkynen was elected third vice chairman of the Finns Party on 8 August 2015, defeating incumbent

Juho Eerola Juho Seppo Antero Eerola (born 24 February 1975 in Kymi, Finland) is a Finnish politician of the Finns Party. He was elected to the Finnish Parliament in the 2011 election. He is also a member of the city council of Kotka. In the True Finns' par ...

. Tynkkynen criticized the Finns Party leadership for its politics in the

Sipilä Cabinet The cabinet of Juha Sipilä was the 74th government of Finland, from 2015 to 2019. It was formed following the parliamentary election of 2015 and formally appointed by President Sauli Niinistö on 29 May 2015. From June 2017, the cabinet consis ...

, calling for more

euroskeptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek reform ...

and anti-immigration politics. In October 2015 he was expelled from the party. The official reason for this was that he had published a list of names of party members who called for a new party congress. His expulsion was considered illegal by some experts. In January 2016 Tynkkynen was allowed to rejoin the party although he had to give up his position as the vice chairman. On 20 November 2016 Tynkkynen was succeeded by Samuli Voutila as the chairman of the Finns Party Youth. In late 2018 Tynkkynen tried to regain the Finns Party Youth chairperson seat but he got fewer votes than the other candidate Asseri Kinnunen. In January 2017, Tynkkynen was fined 300 euros for posting on Facebook, "The fewer Muslims in Finland, the better. ..The less we see of Muslims, it is safer. We have to get rid of Islam before it is too late". In April 2017 Tynkkynen was elected to the City Council of Oulu with 680 votes. In October 2019 Tynkkynen was convicted of ethnic agitation for the second time and issued 50 day-fines (approximately 4000 euros) for comments on Muslims. From Friday 14 May to Saturday 15 May 2021, Tynkkynen gave the longest ever floor speech at the Parliament of Finland in the entire history of the parliament, lasting for over eight hours from 6:06 PM on Friday to 2:30 AM on Saturday. In October 2021, he was convicted for a third time for inciting ethnic agitation, being issued a 70 day-fines (approximately 4400 euros).

Personal life

Since the age of fifteen, Tynkkynen has described himself as

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

. He is currently in a relationship with a man from

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. Since childhood he had been a

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

, but he was excommunicated in 2018, because he sees same-sex marriage to be backed by the Bible. The Pentecostal Church does not hold this viewpoint and believes that Tynkkynen had strayed from the Pentecostal school of marriage. Tynkkynen claims that the reason for him being asked to leave the Church was that he was in a relationship with a man.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tynkkynen, Sebastian 1989 births Living people People from Kokkola Finns Party politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (2019–23) LGBT politicians from Finland Critics of Islam Bisexual politicians LGBT legislators LGBT conservatism