Antti Edvard Häkkänen (born 16 January 1985) is a Finnish politician from the

National Coalition Party The National Coalition Party (NCP; , Kok; , Saml) is a liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in Finland, political party in Finland. It is the current governing political party of Finland. Founded in 1918, the ...

. He has served as

Minister of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

since June 2023 in the Orpo cabinet and as Member of Parliament since 2015. Häkkänen served as Minister of Justice 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 con ...

from 2017 to 2019.

Career

Häkkänen graduated from the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

with a Master of Law. Häkkänen served on the

Mäntyharju Mäntyharju (, ) is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia regions of Finland, region, about southwest of Mikkeli. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is w ...

town council from 2009. He was elected as the Youth National Coalition Party leader in 2011 for the 2012-2013 period. The National Coalition Party nominated Häkkänen as a candidate for the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...

but he did not gain enough votes. In the

2015 Finnish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 19 April 2015, with advance voting taking place from 8 to 14 April. The 200 members of the Parliament of Finland were elected with the proportional D'Hondt method. There were 4,463,333 people entit ...

he was nominated in the newly formed constituency of South-Eastern Finland, and became an elected MP with 6,212 votes. Häkkänen was elected as one of three vice-chairmen of the National Coalition Party at the party summit in June 2016, with the highest number of votes. In June 2023, he was appointed

in the Orpo Cabinet. In February 2024, Häkkänen declared that he was planning to introduce legislation that would prohibit people from resigning from the Finnish Defence Forces' military reserve, while calling resigning reservists unpatriotic. The announcement led into a surge of resignation applications and the plan was widely criticized as unconstitutional and not in line with international treaties.

Political views

Antti Häkkänen with other young members of

visited

Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is a Right-wing politics, right-wing political parties in the United States, political party in the United States. One of the Two-party system, two major parties, it emerged as t ...

party meeting in 2012. According to Häkkänen, National Coalition Party youth share the financial views of Republican Party in the United States.

Personal

Mr Tapani Mäkinen (ex MP of

was named special advisor to Justice Minister Häkkänen in May 2017. Mäkinen resigned in April 2018 due to a police investigation concerning claimed bribery. Mäkinen received juridical charge in August 2019. According to Mäkinen funds he received from mr Juhani Sjöblom (MP candidate of

) (Seepsula Oy) was a legal loan.Pitkän linjan kokoomusvaikuttaja Tapani Mäkiselle korruptiosyytteet – lahjuksen antamisesta epäillään tuusulalaista ex-kansanedustajaa
YLE 20.8.2019

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Häkkänen, Antti 1985 births Living people People from Mäntyharju National Coalition Party politicians Ministers of justice of Finland Ministers of defence of Finland Members of the Parliament of Finland (2015–2019) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2019–2023) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2023–2027) University of Helsinki alumni