Mauri Pekkarinen

Reijo Mauri Matias Pekkarinen (born 6 October 1947, in Kinnula, Finland) is a Finnish politician, currently serving as a Member of European Parliament for Finland. He is the Centre Party of Finland (Suomen Keskusta) deputy and secretary, having served in various cabinet position in the Finnish government, including as Minister of Economic Affairs, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Minister of the Interior, as well as a member of parliament. He is known by the nickname "The Parliament Terrier". Pekkarinen was born into a farmer's family in Kinnula, to father Niilo Matti Pekkarinen (1922–2004), and mother Hellin Inkeri (née Kinnunen, 1929–2018). He graduated from high school in Kannus in 1968. Pekkarinen first became interested in politics as a student at the University of Jyväskylä in the late 1960s and early 1970s, from where he graduated with a Master's in Social Studies in 1974. He had long held an interest in economics and society and began to take part in party politics at the age of 24. In 1979 Pekkarinen was first elected to parliament in the Central Finland constituency, after which he was re-elected with an increased vote share in 1983, 1987, and 1991. After the 1991 election victory he was named Minister of the Interior in the Aho Cabinet. He served in this position for a full parliamentary term until 1995, when Aho's Centre Party lost the parliamentary majority to the Social Democrats in the parliamentary elections. In 2003, Pekkarinen was named the Minister of Trade and Industry in the Jäätteenmäki Cabinet. As new Minister of Trade and Industry, he stated his goal to "promote entrepreneurship and economic growth and thus contribute to diminishing unemployment, [and] to tackle large issues in the field of energy policy such as the carbon dioxide emissions trade between companies in the EU and the building a new nuclear power reactor in Finland", and has also stated an interest in preserving good relations with France. In 2008 his title was changed to Minister of Economic Affairs, a position in which he remained until 2011.