Mari Kiviniemi

Mari Kiviniemi
Prime Minister of Finland
In office 22 June 2010 – 22 June 2011
President	Tarja Halonen
Preceded by	Matti Vanhanen
Succeeded by	Jyrki Katainen
Minister for Public Administration and Local Government
In office 19 April 2007 – 22 June 2010
Prime Minister	Matti Vanhanen
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Tapani Tölli
Minister for Foreign Trade and Development
In office 3 September 2005 – 2 March 2006
Prime Minister	Matti Vanhanen
Preceded by	Paula Lehtomäki
Succeeded by	Paula Lehtomäki
Member of the Finnish Parliament for Helsinki
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 March 2007
Member of the Finnish Parliament for Vaasa Vaasa County (1995–1999)
In office 24 March 1995 – 20 March 2007
Personal details
Born	27 September 1968 (1968-09-27) (age 43) Seinäjoki, Finland
Political party	Centre Party
Spouse(s)	Juha Louhivuori
Alma mater	University of Helsinki

Mari Johanna Kiviniemi (born 27 September 1968) is a Finnish politician and former Prime Minister of Finland. On 22 June 2010, as the new leader of the Centre Party, she was elected Prime Minister of Finland by the Finnish Parliament following the resignation of Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. Prior to her appointment as Prime Minister, Kiviniemi was Minister of Public Administration and Local Government in the Council of State of Finland from 2007 to 2010. Previously she was the Minister of Foreign Trade and Development from 2005 to 2006. Her political party is the Centre Party. In June 2010, she was elected chair of the Centre Party.

Life and career

Kiviniemi was born in Seinäjoki, Finland. She grew up in rural Southern Ostrobothnia, the daughter of a chicken farmer, and went to school in Jalasjärvi. As a teenager during high school, she spent a year as an exchange student in Germany. She enrolled in the University of Helsinki in 1988 to study economics and married Juha Mikael Louhivuori, a businessman, in 1996. They have two children, Hanna and Antti. In addition to her native Finnish, she speaks Swedish, German and English.^[1]

She lists her hobbies as listening to classical music (she plays the piano and flute), running, skiing and in-line roller blading. The family has a summer cottage on lake Vanajavesi.

Kiviniemi is a career politician, and first ran as a candidate for Member of Parliament in 1991, garnering less than 5,000 votes, while serving as the Secretary General of the Centre Party Student Union.^[2] The year after completing the work for her Master's degree in Social Sciences, she ran again in the 1995 general elections, this time winning a seat from the Southern Ostrobothnia district with 9,350 votes.

Kiviniemi is also a member of the Helsinki city council, in addition to her work in national politics. She has been on the city council since 2005.

Leader of Centre Party

In 2003, Kiviniemi was elected to a leadership position within the Centre Party, serving as vice-chairman (one of three) until June 2008, when she was voted off at that summer's party convention. She became a special advisor to Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen in 2004, and was twice appointed by him to serve as a Cabinet minister: first in September 2005 on a temporary basis when the incumbent went on maternity leave for six months; and then on a full-time basis in April 2007.

On 22 January 2010, one month after Prime Minister Vanhanen announced he would be stepping down as leader (chair) of the Centre Party at its June 2010 convention, Kiviniemi announced her candidacy for the vacancy. Her campaign was formally launched in April.^[3]

Delegates to the Centre Party Convention met in Lahti to elect a new leader on 12 June 2010.^[4] Kiviniemi won the second-round run-off, defeating Mauri Pekkarinen by a vote of 1,357 to 1,035.^[5] Prime Minister Vanhanen met with President Tarja Halonen on Friday 18 June and asked her for permission to resign as Prime Minister. Kiviniemi's new post was approved by Parliament on 22 June 2010, with a vote of 115 in favour, 56 against and 29 MPs abstaining or absent.^[6] Her election made her Finland's second female prime minister, after Anneli Jäätteenmäki in 2003.

2011 general election

The 2011 general election saw the rise of the True Finns party, who gained 34 seats at the expense of all but one of the other parliamentary parties. Kiviniemi's Centre Party were hardest hit, losing 16 of the 51 seats they had previously held and falling from being the largest party to the fourth largest. Kiviniemi initially declared that her party would not seek to be part of the next government, but later accepted an invitation by Jyrki Katainen to join coalition negotiations.^[7] Those negotiations broke down, however, and after six other parties announced they had come to an agreement, she presented her government's resignation to the President and was officially succeeded by Katainen as Prime Minister on the 22 June 2011.^[8] The Centre Party went into opposition, with Kiviniemi continuing as its chairwoman.

References

1. ^ "Mari Kiviniemi" (in Finnish). www.marikiviniemi.net. 13 June 2010. http://www.marikiviniemi.net/. Retrieved 23 June 2010. 
2. ^ "Mari Kiviniemi / Finnish Centre Party". www.eduskunta.fi. http://www.eduskunta.fi/triphome/bin/hex5000.sh?hnro=465&kieli=en. Retrieved 23 June 2010. 
3. ^ "Mauri Pekkarinen Enters Race for Centre Party Leadership". Helsingin Sanomat. 26 February 2010. http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Mauri+Pekkarinen+enters+race+for+Centre+Party+leadership/1135253267627. Retrieved 5 June 2010. 
4. ^ "Poll: Kiviniemi Most Popular Candidate for Centre Party Leadership". Helsingin Sanomat. 2 June 2010. http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Poll+Kiviniemi+most+popular+candidate+for+Centre+Party+leadership/1135257244614?ref=rss. Retrieved 5 June 2010. 
5. ^ "Marie Kiviniemi Wins Center Chair, Taking Over as PM". YLE. 12 June 2010. http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/06/mari_kiviniemi_wins_centre_chair_taking_over_as_pm_1755712.html. Retrieved 13 June 2010. 
6. ^ Huuhtanen, Matti (22 June 2010). "Finnish lawmakers elect new prime minister". Associated Press. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j8MiigYBHInUm0Nsw4Ncv0JEzZOgD9GGDONG0. Retrieved 22 June 2010. 
7. ^ "Centre to join government negotiations". YLE. 06 June 2011. http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/06/centre_to_join_government_negotiations_2645293.html. Retrieved 08 September 2011. 
8. ^ Staalesen, Atle (29 June 2011). "Finnish government hands in resignation". Barents Observer. http://www.barentsobserver.com/finnish-government-hands-in-resignation.4914338-116321.html. Retrieved 08 September 2011. 

External links

• Official website (Finnish)
• CV at the Prime Minister's website (English)

Political offices
Preceded by Matti Vanhanen	Prime Minister of Finland 2010–2011	Succeeded by Jyrki Katainen

Persondata
Name	Kiviniemi, Mari
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	27 September 1968
Place of birth	Seinäjoki, Finland
Date of death
Place of death