- Bjarne Kallis
Johan Bjarne Kallis (born
March 21 1945 inKokkola ) is the former chairman of the Christian Democratic Party (KD), previously known as the Finnish Christian Coalition (SKL), and a member of theParliament of Finland . Kallis works as the principal of the Kokkola academy of commerce and has a Master's degree in political sciences.Chairmanship
Under Kallis's chairmanship, the Christian Coalition / Christian Democratic Party separated in the 2003 Parliament elections from the central parties' group and entered a state-wide election allegiance with the National Coalition Party, even though the Lappish circle of the Christian Coalition was already entering an election allegiance with the Centre Party in Lapland. In other circles, the Centre Party did not agree to election allegiances, so technical co-operation with the National Coalition Party was necessary.
In the 2003 elections, the party raised its support to over five percent, but the number of members of the parliament dropped to seven. The election allegiance with the National Coalition Party helped to ensure a parliament position for the Minister of Foreign Trade
Jari Vilén from the Lappish election circle. In return, with the help of the election allegiance, the Christian Democratic Party was able to ensure a parliament position forSari Essayah , who had become famous as the holder of the World Record for walking.Under Bjarne Kallis's chairmanship, the European MP
Eija-Riitta Korhola changed from the Liberal group (ELDR) to the National parties' group (EPP). Later, Korhola also changed her Finnish party membership from the Christian Democratic Party to the National Coalition Party, which caused the Christian Democratic Party to lose their only member position in theEuropean Parliament .Under Kallis's chairmanship, the Christian Coalition, which had emphasised religiousness, changed into a general Christian democratic party, the Christian Democratic Party of Finland. After Kallis,
Päivi Räsänen was elected as the new chairman of the party.Presidential election 2006
Bjarne Kallis was the candidate of the Christian Democratic Party in the 2006 Presidential elections. The people's association gathered to support Kallis's candidacy was started on
October 1 2005 by the Member of the European ParliamentHannu Takkula from the Finnish Centre Party, who had long been a friend of Kallis. Also the beauty professional Tiina Jylhä agreed to support Kallis.Like
Henrik Lax and partly likeSauli Niinistö , Kallis aimed to challenge the head of the Finnish foreign relationships, the president and the prime minister, by supporting a stronger defense dimension of theEuropean Union and possibly even membership inNATO .Tarja Halonen , the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, the foreign ministerErkki Tuomioja and the prime ministerMatti Vanhanen , the candidate of the Centre Party, support neutrality also in the future.Kallis finished sixth out of the eight candidates in the first round of the election on January 15, with a vote share of 2.0% (61,483 votes). Like Matti Vanhanen, Henrix Lax and
Arto Lahti , he publicly endorsed Sauli Niinistö of the National Coalition Party in the runoff election, held on January 29, between Niinistö and the incumbent Tarja Halonen who, however, went on to be re-elected.External links
* [http://www.eduskunta.fi/triphome/bin/thw/trip/?${base}=veps8999&${html}=ve4000&${oohtml}=ve5000&${ccl}=define+reverse&${freetext}=ed_hnro=417&${maxpage}=21&${snhtml}=venosyn&${maxhits}=50&${TRIPCOL}=500#alkukohta Bjarne Kallis's actions in the Finnish parliament]
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