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Juha Petri Sipilä (; born 25 April 1961) is a Finnish politician who served as
Prime Minister of Finland The prime minister of Finland (; ) is the leader of the Finnish Government. The prime minister and his or her cabinet exercise executive authority in the state. The prime minister is formally ranked third in the protocol after the president ...
from 2015 to 2019. A relative newcomer to politics, he has a successful background in business. He was the leader of the Centre Party from 2012 to 2019. After leading the Centre party to victory in the 2015 general election, Sipilä formed a centre-right coalition and was appointed prime minister by the Finnish Parliament on 29 May 2015. On 8 March 2019, Sipilä stated his intention to resign as prime minister, citing difficulties in reforming Finland's health care system.
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
Sauli Niinistö asked him to continue with a
caretaker government A caretaker government, also known as a caretaker regime, is a temporary ''ad hoc'' government that performs some governmental duties and functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed. Depending on specific practice, it co ...
until a new government coalition was appointed on 6 June 2019 and was ultimately succeeded by
Antti Rinne Antti Juhani Rinne (; born 3 November 1962) is a Finnish politician who served as speaker of the Parliament of Finland from April to June 2019 and Prime Minister of Finland from June to December 2019. He led the Social Democratic Party from 2 ...
.


Education and military service

Sipilä graduated from
Puolanka Puolanka (; , also ) is a municipality in Finland located in the Kainuu region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Finnish. The fir-t ...
lukio (Finland's university-preparatory high school), completing the
matriculation examination A matriculation examination or matriculation exam is a university entrance examination, which is typically held towards the end of secondary school. After passing the examination, a student receives a School leaving qualification, school leaving ce ...
with high marks in 1980. In 1986 Sipilä earned his Master's degree in science (technology) from the
University of Oulu The University of Oulu () 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 14,200 students and 3,800 staff. 21 International Master's Programmes are offer ...
. Sipilä has the rank of captain in the reserves of the
Finnish Defence Forces The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) (; ) are the military of Finland. The Finnish Defence Forces consist of the Finnish Army, the Finnish Navy, and the Finnish Air Force. In wartime, the Finnish Border Guard becomes part of the Finnish Defence For ...
.


Business

Sipilä's career started at Lauri Kuokkanen Ltd., first as a thesis worker and later as a product development manager. Changing jobs, he became a partner and later CEO at Solitra Oy. In 1998, Sipilä started his own business, Fortel Invest Oy. In 2002–2005 he worked as the CEO of Elektrobit Oyj, then returned to his own business. Sipilä was managing director of Solitra in 1992 and became the main owner in 1994. Sipilä sold Solitra to American ADC Telecommunications in 1996, becoming a multimillionaire from the proceeds. Business ADC Mersum Oy was resold to Remec in 2001.Yritysuutiset8.1.2004
/ref> In 1996, Sipilä's income was the highest in Finland. According to ''Ilta-Sanomat'' he has been on the Board of Directors of 120 companies.


Chempolis Involvement

Juha Sipilä was part-owner in the start-up company Chempolis. According to MOT Program (YLE) in 2012, Chempolis had received 10 million euros in public funds over 15 years along with extra funds from the Finnish Innovation Fund
SITRA Sitra ( or , ''As-Sitra''), also known as Sitrah or Sitra Island ( ), is an island in Bahrain situated approximately south of the capital, Manama, which is on Bahrain Island. History The island of Sitra has witnessed various conflicts. One ...
and Finnish state-owned financing company Finnvera. According to YLE TV News in 2017, the majority state-owned energy company
Fortum Fortum Oyj is a Finland, Finnish Government of Finland, state-owned energy company located in Espoo, Finland. It mainly focuses on the Nordic countries, Nordic region. Fortum operates power plants, including co-generation plants, and generate ...
saved Chempolis from bankruptcy by investing 6 million euros into the company in October 2016. Thereafter, children of Sipilä owned 5% of the company and Fortum 34%. Sipilä had been in control of the state owned companies including Fortum since the end of 2015. The Prime Ministers of Finland have not had the control of state companies previously. Prime Minister Juha Sipilä lobbied for Chempolis in India in 2016. Chempolis issued a press release on its joint venture with India's Numaligarh Refinery to build a biorefinery in North East India (Assam) for the production of bioethanol following meetings between Prime Minister
Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...
, India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Finland's Prime Minister Juha Sipilä on 12–14 February 2016.


Politics

As a student, Sipilä worked for a short time in the Finnish Centre Youth, but otherwise he did not have experience in party politics before being elected to the Finnish Parliament in 2011 with 5,543 personal votes. In April 2012, Sipilä announced his candidacy for the chairman's position in the party congress of the summer. On June 9, 2012, the party congress elected him chairman. He beat Tuomo Puumala in the second round by 1251 to 872 delegate votes. Sipilä led his party to victory in the 2015 election, where the Centre Party gained 14 seats compared to the previous election. With 30,758 personal votes he was the most popular candidate in the election. Following the election, he was tasked with forming a government coalition; and as the leader of the Centre Party, he began formal negotiations with the
Finns Party The Finns Party ( , PS; , Sannf), formerly known as the True Finns, is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The party achieved its electoral breakthro ...
and 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 ...
and formed a three-party majority coalition.


Sipilä's Government

Sipilä's government struggled with Finland's poor economic performance, caused according to
Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American New Keynesian economics, New Keynesian economist who is the Distinguished Professor of Economics at the CUNY Graduate Center, Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He ...
and others by the constraints of its
eurozone The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a Monetary union, currency union of 20 Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (Euro sign, €) as their primary currency ...
membership and aftershocks from the
European debt crisis The euro area crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis, European debt crisis, or European sovereign debt crisis, was a multi-year debt crisis and financial crisis in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until, in Greece, 2018. The e ...
, but also by the decline of the paper industry, the fall of
Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
and a diminution in exports to
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. Its attempts to address the problems through policies of spending cuts and reducing labour costs were controversial, particularly cuts to education spending that were seen as threatening Finland's successful public education system. These austerity measures were partly implemented due to
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
pressure, which urged Finland to improve its adherence to the
Stability and Growth Pact The Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) is an agreement, among all the 27 member states of the European Union (EU), to facilitate and maintain the stability of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union, Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). ...
and reform its labour market to improve competitiveness. On 22 July 2015, Sipilä announced his government's commitment to reducing Finnish wage costs by 5% by 2019, an internal devaluation caused by Finland's loss of the ability to devalue its currency to boost competitiveness. There were protests against the government's austerity measures. In summer 2017, Finns Party split into two parties, namely Blue Reform and the current
Finns Party The Finns Party ( , PS; , Sannf), formerly known as the True Finns, is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The party achieved its electoral breakthro ...
. The Blue Reform members of the former Finns Party, including all ministers, remained in the government after the split. Following the term of Sipilä Cabinet, the Centre Party was the biggest loser of the 2019 parliamentary election, losing 18 seats and falling from largest party to fourth place. The party's support was lower than in any parliamentary election since
1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...
. Due to the devastating defeat, Sipilä consequently announced that he would continue as the chairman only until Centre Party's next convention in September 2019.


Talvivaara and Yleisradio scandal

In 2016, Sipiläs close relatives were revealed to be part-owners of the bankrupt
Talvivaara Mining Company Ahtium (known until 2017 as the Talvivaara Mining Company; ) was a Finnish mining company that operated the Talvivaara nickel mine from the company's establishment in 2004 until the mining business was sold to the state-owned in 2015. Former ...
, later renamed and re-organised into the company Terrafame, which had received considerable funds from the Finnish government.Pääministerin sukulaisten omistamalla yrityksellä noin puolen miljoonan euron tilaus Terrafamesta
25.11.2016 YLE
A Parliamentary Ombudsman later decided that Sipilä didn't face a conflict of interest over mine deal. However, it was later revealed that Sipilä had contacted
Yleisradio Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...
in order to instruct them on how to report on the Talvivaara and Terrafame incidents, leading to suspicion that YLE had been politically pressured.


Personal life


Family

Sipilä grew up in the small town of
Puolanka Puolanka (; , also ) is a municipality in Finland located in the Kainuu region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Finnish. The fir-t ...
, northern Finland, north of Kajaani, the firstborn of four children to mother Pirkko and father Pentti Sipilä, an elementary school teacher. In 1981, Sipilä married Minna-Maaria Juntunen at Oulu Cathedral. They have five children. Their youngest son, Tuomo (born in 1993), died on 18 February 2015.


Wood Gas Venture

Sipilä is known for his interest in
wood gas Wood gas is a fuel gas that can be used for furnaces, stoves, and vehicles. During the production process, biomass or related carbon-containing materials are gasified within the oxygen-limited environment of a wood gas generator to produce a c ...
electricity generation, which began as a hobby. The cost to bring power to his summer cottage seemed too high, and he became interested in
wood gas Wood gas is a fuel gas that can be used for furnaces, stoves, and vehicles. During the production process, biomass or related carbon-containing materials are gasified within the oxygen-limited environment of a wood gas generator to produce a c ...
. First, he produced the electricity with wind power and with a diesel generator, but then he started building wood gas plants. He converted an old Chevrolet El Camino into "El Kamina" (''Kamiina'' means "stove" in Finnish.) powered by wood gas, with electronic control systems. This hobby was spun off into a company, Volter Oy, which produces wood gas power plants. A 10-house
ecovillage An ecovillage is a traditional or intentional community that aims to become more socially, culturally, economically and/or environmentally sustainable. An ecovillage strives to have the least possible negative impact on the natural environment ...
in Kempele is powered by one such power plant.


Religious affiliation

The Sipiläs are members of Rauhan Sana (transl. "Word of Peace", affiliated in North America with ALCA), a small Laestadian revivalist denomination within the state Lutheran church of Finland. The Sipiläs first met at a Laestadian summer camp as teenagers. Sipilä has stated he does not consider himself a legalistic Laestadian, and in interviews he has carefully distinguished his own Laestadian denomination from his home region's other, predominant, exclusive Laestadian group (
Conservative Laestadianism Conservative Laestadianism is the largest branch of the Lutheran Christian revival, revival movement Laestadianism. It has spread to 16 countries. As of 2012 there were about 115,000 Conservative Laestadians, most of them in Finland, the U ...
). The chairman of board in Juha Sipilä's religious community was his wife's brother in 2015. According to Juha Sipilä, in 2012 he participated in the International Christian Chamber of Commerce ICCC.


Aircraft ownership

Juha Sipilä owned an airplane named Mooney Ovation 2 in 2018. Earlier he had a one-third ownership interest in a helicopter and another aircraft. In 2018 he promised to compensate all climate change gas emissions from his air travel by cultivating trees with his own hands.Ohjaimissa Juha Sipilä Helsingin Sanomat Kuukausiliite 11/2018


Electoral history


Parliamentary elections


Municipal elections


Cabinets

* Sipilä Cabinet


References


External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Sipila, Juha 1961 births Living people People from Veteli Finnish Lutherans Centre Party (Finland) politicians Laestadians Prime ministers of Finland Speakers of the Parliament of Finland Members of the Parliament of Finland (2011–2015) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2015–2019) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2019–2023) Finnish businesspeople University of Oulu alumni