Vesa-Matti Saarakkala (born 24 March 1984) was a Finnish

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

from 2011 to 2019 and a member of

Kurikka Kurikka is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southern Ostrobothnia region. The population of Kurikka is () and the municipality covers an area of of which is inland water () ...

's city council.

Early life

Saarakkala was born on 24 March 1984 in Kurikka,

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 ...

. His father was an office manager and his mother worked various jobs before becoming a practical nurse. He has one sister who is older than him by thirteen years.

Political career

Saarakkala represents

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 ...

and is the 3rd vice-chairman of the party. He was elected chairman of the youth organization for the party in autumn 2003, and he held the position until 2010. He was elected 17 April 2011 to the Parliament of Finland from the Vaasa electoral district. On 13 June 2017, Saarakkala and 19 others left the Finns Party parliamentary group to found the

New Alternative The Finnish Reform Movement ( fi, Korjausliike, korj), is a Finnish conservative political party. It was founded by the 19 MPs who left the Finns Party on 13 June 2017 in protest against Jussi Halla-aho having been elected party leader. The new ...

parliamentary group. In September 2018, Saarakkala announced that he wouldn't run for the Parliament anymore in the 2019 elections.

Nuiva manifesti

Saarakkala was one of the underwriters of the "Nuiva Manifesti" ("The sour electoral manifesto"), an election campaign program critical of current immigration policy. The other signers were Juho S. A. Eerola, Jussi Halla-aho,

James Hirvisaari James Hirvisaari (born 2 July 1960) is a Finnish politician. He was elected to the Finnish Parliament in the 2011 general election held on 17 April on the electoral list of the Finns Party, but since 2013 he has represented Change 2011. Persona ...

Olli Immonen Olli Immonen (born 12 February 1986) is a member of the Finnish Parliament for the Finns Party and a former chairman of the nationalist organization Suomen Sisu. Immonen was born in Nivala, and received national attention in July 2015 after writ ...

, Teemu Lahtinen,

Maria Lohela Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...

, Heikki Luoto, Heta Lähteenaro, Johannes Nieminen,

Pasi Salonen Pasi Salonen (born December 18, 1985, in Helsinki) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey forward who played extensively in the Liiga. He was selected by the Washington Capitals in the fifth-round, 138th overall, of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft ...

, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo and Freddy Van Wonterghem.

Circumcision ban proposal

In March 2012, Saarakkala called for the criminalisation of

male circumcision Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. Topic ...

in Finland. In October 2012, it was reported that he had plans to submit a bill proposing the criminalisation of ritual circumcision involving males under the age of 15.Denniz Mitzner
Finland debates circumcision
The Jerusalem Post, Published October 2, 2012

Personal life

Saarakkala is married to a classroom teacher. He and his wife have two children together: a daughter named Lilja (born 2009) and a daughter named Sonja (born 2012).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saarakkala, Vesa-Matti 1984 births Living people People from Kurikka Finnish Lutherans Finns Party politicians Blue Reform politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (2011–2015) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2015–2019) Vaasa (constituency)