Päivi Räsänen
| Päivi Räsänen | |
|---|---|
Räsänen in 2015
|
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| Minister of the Interior of Finland | |
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In office 22 June 2011 – 29 May 2015 |
|
| Prime Minister |
Jyrki Katainen Alexander Stubb |
| Preceded by | Anne Holmlund |
| Succeeded by | Petteri Orpo |
| Member of the Finnish Parliament | |
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Assumed office 1995 |
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| Chairperson of the Finnish Christian Democrats | |
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In office October 2, 2004 – August 28, 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Bjarne Kallis |
| Succeeded by | Sari Essayah |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 19, 1959 Sonkajärvi |
| Political party | Christian Democrats |
| Occupation | physician |
| Profession | Licentiate in Medicine |
| Religion | Evangelical Lutheran |
| Website | Official website |
Päivi Maria Räsänen, née Kuvaja (born December 19, 1959, in Sonkajärvi, Finland), is a Finnish politician. The chairwoman of the Christian Democrats since 2004, she was the Minister of the Interior of Finland between 2011 and 2015.
A physician by education, Räsänen entered politics in the early 1990s, running for parliament in 1991. She has been in the Riihimäki City Council since 1993, and in the Finnish Parliament since 1995. She was elected the chairperson of the Christian Democrats in October 2, 2004. Following the government formation after the 2011 election, which led to the Christian Democrats joining the government, Räsänen was nominated by the party as the Minister of the Interior in the 72nd Finnish Cabinet led by Jyrki Katainen, and she was inaugurated along with the government on June 22, 2011.
Räsänen has been characterized as a conservative. On October 12, 2010, Räsänen was one of the participants on a live TV debate on Ajankohtainen kakkonen's Homoilta special, with the topic of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights. The program was followed by an unprecedented exodus from the Evangelical Lutheran Church — in a few weeks, nearly 40,000 members left the Church through the website eroakirkosta.fi. Räsänen was on the show representing her party and herself as a Christian individual along with five other opponents of gay marriage, but the resignations were specifically attributed to her by the media in general and then-Minister of Culture and Sports Stefan Wallin. Räsänen thinks homosexual acts are a sin and she herself does not consider her views "specifically extreme".
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Wikipedia