Matti Vanhanen

Matti Taneli Vanhanen (born 4 November 1955) is a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland from 2003 to 2010.

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 studied political science at the University of Helsinki, graduating as a Master of Social Sciences in 1989.

Vanhanen was elected to the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) in 1991.

As a member of Parliament he was interested in ecological issues.

He served on the Parliamentary Environment Committee 1991–1995, and was chair of the Parliamentary Grand Committee 2000–2001.

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 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.

Vanhanen served as Chairman of the Youth Foundation from 1998 to 2003 and Deputy chairman from 1981 to 1997.

The prosecution claims the Youth Foundation donated under the direction of Centre Party MP Antti Kaikkonen funding of over 90,000 euros for his own campaign and that of other Centre Party MPs including Matti Vanhanen.

Prosecutors say this contravened the Foundation's own rules and laws governing such institutions.

Vanhanen resigned from the Constitutional Convention in 2003 when he became Minister of Defense in the cabinet of Prime Minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki.

After Jäätteenmäki's resignation, Vanhanen was elected Prime Minister and his first cabinet was formed.

As a politician, Vanhanen is considered to be part of the liberal wing of the old agrarian Central Party, along with the two other Party ministers from Uusimaa region.

His government cut the top state income tax rate from 35.5% to 33.5% in 2005 and 32.5% in 2006 (resulting in approximately 55% total tax rate after local government and social security taxes).

The corporate tax rate was also lowered to 26% and capital gains to 28% (both formerly 29%), though at the same time dividends were partially made taxable.

He was also Chairman of the Centre Party in 2006.

In his earlier career, he was a journalist.

Vanhanen is the son of professor Tatu Vanhanen and Anni Tiihonen.

As the Centre Party candidate, Vanhanen challenged President Tarja Halonen in the 2006 Finnish presidential election.

He received 18.6% of the vote, coming third to the National Coalition Party's Sauli Niinistö (24.1%) and Social Democrat and incumbent Tarja Halonen (46.3%), and thus did not qualify for the runoff.

Vanhanen expressed his support for Niinistö in the runoff election against his coalition partner's candidate Halonen.

The presidential election, and co-operation between Centre Party and National Coalition Party, proved to be a major strain on the government coalition between the Centre Party and Social Democrats.

The flashpoint came in March, when the Centre Party demanded national agricultural subsidies to cover farmers' losses when the Finnish exception in the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy was about to expire.

At the end of the crisis Vanhanen told his parliamentary group that taxpayers would cover ninety percent or about 100 million euros in losses.

Matti Vanhanen received 25,000 euros for his presidential election campaign in 2006 from Ahti Vilppula via his company Helsingin Mekaanikkotalo.

Mekaanikkotalo is owned by Procomex in Luxembourg and further by Kilbrin Investments Limited in the Virgin Islands.

After the March 2007 election the Centre Party narrowly remained the largest party after losing four seats.

However their coalition partner, the SDP, lost eight seats and the centre-right National Coalition Party gained ten.

Vanhanen's second cabinet was formed on a centre-right basis, with minor partners the Green League and the Swedish People's Party.

A scandal involving Vanhanen's second cabinet began rolling in May 2008, after the leader of the Centre Party's parliamentary group Timo Kalli said publicly that he would not reveal information about his campaign finances, because such disclosure was not required.

In 2009 it was found out that this finance was not included in the finance announcement.