Name Ilya Spiegel | Role Finnish Politician | |
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ilya spiegel april 2009 medvedev in finland
Ilya Spiegel (Russian: Илья Шпигель; born August 24, 1975, Leningrad, USSR) is a Finnish politician, the founder and leader of the New Europeans movement in Finland. He ran for Parliament of Finland in 2011 as an opposition to nationalist movements gaining power and popularity among Finnish voters. He belongs to the Swedish People's Party of Finland.
Contents
- ilya spiegel april 2009 medvedev in finland
- ilya spiegel vid ntv
- Personal background
- Political career
- References
ilya spiegel vid ntv
Personal background
Spiegel has both Russian and Finnish citizenship. He moved to Finland in 1992 and graduated from Åbo Akademi University as an economist. The first language he learned in Finland was Swedish. Ilya Spiegel speaks five languages and works for international manufacturing corporations as a specialist in foreign trade and FDI, he is a board member of several cultural NGOs. He gives lectures at schools, universities and enterprises as an expert in international marketing and multicultural issues.
Political career
Spiegel has been politically active in Finland and the EU as a member of the Swedish People's Party of Finland (RKP) since the end of the 1990s. In recent times the RKP has lost support due to the diminishing Swedish-speaking population in Finland and the growing popularity of the biggest parties. But being a party of a minority by nature, it is interested to represent and advocate all language minorities, and so Spiegel founded a political movement to represent the interests of all language minorities. The name of the movement in Finland is Uussuomalaiset (New Finns). But since language minorities are numerous around Europe, "New Europeans" has been chosen for the international name.