Paavo Väyrynen

Early life

Paavo Väyrynen was born in a farmer family in Keminmaa, southwest Lapland. After finishing his gymnasium he graduated in 1970 as a Bachelor of Social Sciences in the University of Helsinki. In Väyrynen's doctoral thesis in 1988, Finlands utrikespolitik – den nationella doktrinen och framtidens mänsklighetspolitik ("Foreign politics of Finland - the national doctrine and the politics of the future of mankind"), he made an assumption that the Soviet Union would prevail — an assumption which has ever since haunted him in the media. In 1996, Väyrynen was granted docentship of International Relations in University of Lapland.

Early political career

Väyrynen skyrocketed to Finnish political sky very early. He was elected to the Finnish Parliament in 1970 elections. He was immediately chosen to work as a Secretary of Ahti Karjalainen's cabinet. The 25-year-old Väyrynen was elected as the Vice Chairman of the Finnish Centre Party in 1972 and only three years later he began his long ministerial career as the Minister of Education.

The new rising star managed to attain the popularity of President Kekkonen. He soon became one of Kekkonen's trustees and a fierce defender of his foreign policies.

Young chairman of the Centre Party

Paavo Väyrynen became one of the most influential Finnish politicians in 1980 when he was elected as the Chairman of Finnish Centre Party. The Väyrynen victory in 1980 party congress was remarkable also because his main opponent was a well known ex-Prime Minister of Finland Johannes Virolainen. The vote was tight, 1737 delegates of the Party Congress voted for Väyrynen and 1611 delegates supported Virolainen. President Kekkonen's support in the background was of decisive importance in Väyrynen's victory.

The "Jalasmökki scandal" 1982 shadowed Väyrynen's career later in media. It occurred when only a few square metres' mobile cabin was found in the address in Keminmaa where Väyrynen officially resided. Väyrynen lived at the same time in Helsinki and used the cabin to get extra compensation from public funds. Later the system of expense compansations for the members of the Parliament of Finland was made more favourable for MPs from distant electoral districts.

Just a year before Finnish parliamentary election, 1983 the Centre Party merged with the Liberals, but this did not help the party prevent the rise of the populist Finnish Rural Party. Nevertheless, the Centre Party formed a government with the Social Democratic Party of Finland and Väyrynen became the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Opposition leader 1987-1991

After Finnish presidential election, 1982 and the 1983 parliament election the Social Democrats had secured a hegemony in Finnish politics holding both the President and Prime Minister chairs. To destroy the hegemony Väyrynen made a secret agreement with the opposition forces (conservative National Coalition Party, the Christian League and Liberals) and Swedish People's Party of Finland before Finnish parliamentary election, 1987 to form a new Centre-Right government after the elections if the coalition would gain a majority. But, at the same time the National Coalition party had played with two cards and made a similar agreement with the Social Democrats. Even though the Social Democrats lost a bit of their support in the elections, they remained the biggest party and formed a new government with the National Coalition Party. Väyrynen was now the main opposition figure in Finnish politics.

Challenger of President Koivisto

In Finnish presidential election, 1988 Väyrynen was an obvious choice to be the presidential candidate of the main opposition party. On the first round he got 20.6% of the votes and challenged the incumbent President Koivisto. Nevertheless, the National Coalition candidate supported Koivisto, who was elected to his second term.

After the presidential elections Väyrynen's Centre Party was successful in Finnish municipality elections and gained 21.1% of the votes.

Resignation of the party chairmanship and 1991 elections

In 1990 Väyrynen decided to resign after being the party chairman for 10 years. Esko Aho was elected as a successor of Väyrynen. He led the Centre Party into a historic victory with 24.83% of the votes. Väyrynen got more votes than any other candidate in the whole country and was chosen - for the fourth time during his political career - as the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Paavo Väyrynen was critical to the active support given by the Danish Uffe Ellemann-Jensen and the Icelandic Jon Baldvin Hannibalsson to the Baltic states in their fight to regain independence. In 1992, however, Paavo Väyrynen together with 9 other Ministers of Foreign Affairs from the Baltic Sea area, and an EU commissioner founded the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the EuroFaculty, as Finland actively supported.

Later former Estonian prime minister Edgar Savisaar criticised that Väyrynen as a minister of Foreign Affairs with the Social Democrat president Mauno Koivisto and conservative party leader Harri Holkeri were more of a hindrance than a help in Estonia's independence process.

EU membership disappointment and 1994 election

During his ministry Finland submitted its application for EU membership. Nevertheless, the negotiations with the EU were a disappointment to Väyrynen. When the result of the negotiation was ready, Väyrynen declared that he would oppose Finnish EU membership.

With the new chairman of the party supporting EU membership Väyrynen decided to resign as a Minister. He challenged the new political line of the party by announcing his candidacy to 1994 presidential election. He beat his main opponents Keijo Korhonen and Eeva Kuuskoski in the Centre Party primary. After Väyrynen's victory both Kuuskoski and Korhonen decided to run as independent candidates in the elections.

Väyrynen finished third in the election and did not make it to the second round. He was highly disappointed with the result especially when the results of early voting were announced. The opinion polls released by the media just before the presidential elections' first round had shown low support for Väyrynen, although actually he was the second most popular candidate in early voting. On the official election day Väyrynen received a lot less support and he claimed that the media had manipulated the opinion polls to convince voters to believe that Väyrynen had no chance to advance to the second round. According to Väyrynen there was a "media game" against him. Later the phrase ("media game", mediapeli in Finnish) became a popular slogan in Finnish politics.

Opposition figure inside his own party

After the presidential elections Finland hold also a referendum of the EU membership late 1994. The Centre Party was split in the issue by the party leaders supporting the membership and Väyrynen campaigning fiercely against it. The Party Congress decided to support the membership and Väyrynen became a prominent opposition figure inside his own party.

Member of the European Parliament

When Finland joined the European Union in 1995 the Finnish Parliament elected Väyrynen to the European Parliament. In the European Parliament election 1996 Väyrynen was the candidate with the most votes - 157,668 - in the entire Finland. In the European Parliament Väyrynen worked as the Vice Chairman of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group. As an MEP Väyrynen defended the European Union based on supranational principles and opposed the ideas of federal Europe.

In the European Parliament election 1999 Väyrynen was again the vote-puller of his party but this time with "only" 60.000 votes. In the European Parliament election 2004 Väyrynen was elected third time in row.

Return to Finnish politics

During his career in the European Parliament Väyrynen tried to get a comeback to the Finnish politics several times. His first unsuccessful attempt was in September 1999 when Väyrynen lost the primary election for President against Esko Aho.

The second attempt in 2002 ended in a painful defeat. Väyrynen was a candidate for the Centre Party chairmanship but received only 100 votes out of a few thousand delegates in the party congress. He had not lost only the support of the party leadership but also the support of usual Centre Party members.

Nevertheless, the ordinary voters had not forgotten Väyrynen. He participated in Finnish parliamentary election in 2003 and promised not to return to the European Parliament. In 2004 Väyrynen, tired of the lack of support by the Finnish political elite, was re-elected to the European Parliament.

In 2007 Väyrynen finally returned to the Finnish Parliament. In the election he was elected from Lapland to the Parliament but refused to receive the parliamentary seat without a minister's portfolio. As a surprise Matti Vanhanen, the new Prime Minister, offered him a position as the Minister of Foreign Trade and Development. As a minister Väyrynen found himself often in opposition to other members of the cabinet.

As a minister, he said that Finland should not have joined the eurozone. In 2008, he labeled the Russia–Georgia War as a "Georgian attack" on "Russian peacekeepers" and ended his article with the statement that Finland should not discuss NATO membership because "it could create the impression that Finland is moving from cooperation to confrontation".

In 2010 he run, once again, to the chairmanship of the Centre Party. The veteran politician suffered a heavy loss once again finishing only fourth in the vote. Väyrynen again blamed "media game" of his loss.

Many Finns believed that Väyrynen's career was over when he lost his seat as a member of Finnish parliament in 2011 election. Väyrynen had changed from his stronghold electoral district of Lapland to the Uusimaa electoral district. Later he accused Timo Laaninen, the secretary general of the Centre Party for luring him to change the electoral district.

2012 presidential election

Soon after his loss in the 2011 parliamentary election, Väyrynen announced his willingness to participate in the upcoming presidential election. Väyrynen appeared to be the only one believing in his chances of winning the primary for the Centre Party. Nevertheless, the party suffering from a heavy loss in 2011 parliament election, saw no-one else interested in to run in the election, and as a result Väyrynen was again a presidential candidate. In the summer of 2011, the European sovereign debt crisis got worse and Väyrynen's predictions from 1990s looked surprisingly real.

Väyrynen had been polling third or second in opinion polls for the election after Sauli Niinistö. He was also accusing other candidates of hiding their positive attitude of possible Finnish membership in NATO. He has also suggested that Finland ought to readopt the Finnish markka alongside the euro. Väyrynen was eliminated from the second round of the election (5 February), placing third on the first round (22 January) behind the Green League's Pekka Haavisto by a close margin of 1.3 percentage points (37,000 votes).

After presidential election

Soon after the presidential election, Väyrynen announced his candidacy for the chairman's position in the party congress of the summer 2012. He was eliminated from the second round of the election, placing third on the first round behind Juha Sipilä and Tuomo Puumala.

In 2014 European Parliament election Väyrynen was elected again to the European Parliament with 69,360 votes. He also participated the Finnish parliamentary election in 2015, and was elected with 6,889 votes. After the election, Väyrynen announced that he would continue his work in the European Parliament, but would return to the Finnish Parliament, if he is given a cabinet position.

In July 2015, Väyrynen launched a citizens' initiative to organize a referendum on whether Finland should remain in the euro zone. Väyrynen argued that the decision to join euro was a mistake.

Founding a new party

In January 2016, Väyrynen announced that he will leave all board positions in the Centre Party. He stated that he was no longer able to affect the decision making within the party and criticized Sipilä cabinet for its liberal politics. Soon after, Väyrynen announced that he was founding a new party called Citizens' Party (Kansalaispuolue) and would represent it for rest of his term in the European Parliament. The party managed to gather enough signatures from supporters and was qualified as a registered party in December 2016. In 2017 Keminmaa Centre party's branch announced that Väyrynen has resigned from the party as he has founded new political party

Väyrynen has announced that he will run for the City Council of Helsinki during the 2017 municipal elections as an independent.

Pohjantähti Folk High School and Pohjanranta

As an MEP Väyrynen organised Europe education for young people and adults. Later these lectures formed a base for a folk high school Pohjantähti in Lapland. Väyrynen bought with his wife an old retirement home in Keminmaa and renovated it into a school. Nevertheless, the Finnish Ministry of Education did not financially support the project of the ex-Minister of Education.

Väyrynen has opened on the same area also Pohjanranta farm, which hosts a youth home, a dance hall, a vineyard, a hostel and a church.

Books written by Väyrynen