page_title: Matti Vanhanen
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Matti Vanhanen / Career
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. LPG Gierstädt, Besuch einer finnischen Jugenddelegation ADN-ZB Ludwig-B-6.8.88- Bezirk Erfurt: Finnische Jugendliche besuchten LPG- Die Delegation zur 6. Woche der Jugend der Republik Finnland in der DDR war zu Gast bei den Bauern der LPG "Fahner Obst" Gierstädt. Im Informationszimmer des landwirtschaftlichen Betriebes gab LPG-Vorsitzender Peter Brückner (r.) der von Matti Vanhanen (3.v.r.) geleiteten Delegation notwendige Erläuterungen. Vgl. 1988-0806-9N!
context_page_description: Matti Taneli Vanhanen is a Finnish politician who was Prime Minister of Finland from 2003 to 2010. He was also Chairman of the Centre Party, and in the second half of 2006 he was President of the European Council. In his earlier career he was a journalist. Vanhanen is the son of professor Tatu Vanhanen and Anni Tiihonen. On June 9, 2020, he became the Minister of Finance.
context_section_description: Vanhanen studied political science at the University of Helsinki, graduating as a Master of Social Sciences in 1989. He was chairman of the Centre Party Youth League from 1980 to 1983. He also served as a member of the Espoo City Council from 1981 to 1984. Vanhanen used to work as a journalist. He was an editor (1985–1988) and editor-in-chief (1988–1991) at the local newspaper Kehäsanomat. In a column in Suomenmaa (the Centre Party's organ), he strongly condemned the Baltic Star pro-Estonian independence demonstration held in Helsinki in July 1985, calling the demonstration "provocative".
  Vanhanen was elected to the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) in 1991. As a member of Parliament he was interested in ecological issues. For instance, Vanhanen spoke against the building of a fifth nuclear power plant in 1992, at the same time as serving on the board of electricity corporation Fortum. He served on the Parliamentary Environment Committee 1991–1995, and was chair of the Parliamentary Grand Committee 2000–2001. He was vice-chair of the Centre Party Parliamentary group 1994–2001, and Deputy Chairman of the Centre Party 2000–2003.
  Another important topic for Vanhanen was Finland's foreign and security policy. As a specialist on the European Union he was a member of the European Union Constitutional Convention. There he criticised the president of the convention, former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, as authoritarian. Vanhanen has said that he is unenthusiastic about European co-operation, and that he is an "EU pragmatist", so he may be considered a eurosceptic, especially when compared to his EU-enthusiast predecessor Paavo Lipponen.
caption: Vanhanen (third from right) visited the GDR in 1988.
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