News
The article is more than 7 years old

Parliament welcomes new MP with a familiar name

The Finnish Parliament does not reconvene for nearly a month, but a new MP was sworn in on Tuesday.

Veronica Rehn-Kivi.
Veronica Rehn-Kivi. Image: Jaani Lampinen / Yle

Veronica Rehn-Kivi of the small Swedish People's Party (SPP) presented her credentials to Speaker of Parliament Maria Lohela on Tuesday.

She is replacing ex-party chair and defence minister Carl Haglund, who last spring announced he was leaving politics for the private sector. He is now an executive at the Chinese firm Sunshine Kaidi New Energy Group, which plans to build a biofuel refinery in Kemi, northern Finland.

"I was disappointed when Carl Haglund announced he was quitting because he had handled his responsibilities very well," Rehn-Kivi told Yle on Tuesday. "At the same time, I'm very excited about taking on this post."

From Kauniainen council to national legislature

Rehn-Kivi is an architect and local councillor from the small town of Kauniainen, a wealthy enclave surrounded by Espoo. She is the daughter of Elisabeth Rehn, an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations who served as Finland's first woman defence minister from 1990 to 1995 and ran for president twice.

Rehn-Kivi says she has neither sought nor received political guidance from her mother.

"She has not really given me advice. I've followed her career and I'm proud of her, but I'm certainly pursuing my career on my own," she says.

First time in opposition since 1979

In June, the SPP elected former justice minister Anna-Maja Henriksson as the first female leader in its 110-year history. The party has been in opposition since last year following 36 years as a junior government partner. About 5.4 percent of Finns speak Swedish as their mother tongue. In Kauniainen the figure is more than one third.

The full legislature is scheduled to reconvene on September 8. In the meantime there will be meetings of the Grand Committee, which has 25 members from all parties and focuses mainly on EU affairs. In a rare move, MPs returned briefly from their summer recess to discuss the UK's Brexit vote on July 1.

Latest: paketissa on 10 artikkelia