Profile

Minister of the Environment Ville Niinistö

 

I was born in Turku on 30 July 1976. After completing comprehensive and upper secondary school in Kaarina, I applied to the University of Turku to study political history. It was a sort of compromise between my interest in humanities and social sciences. In 1996, I completed military service on the Gyltö fortress island in Korppoo.

 

In university, my main subjects included East Asian studies, cultural history, international law and political science. To gain international experience, I studied as an exchange student in Britain in 1999 and the following year I worked as a trainee at the Finnish embassy in Indonesia.

 

During that period of time, I also engaged in local politics and decided to stand as a candidate for the Green League in the 2000 local elections. Chair of the Kaarina board for environmental protection was my first significant position of trust in local politics.

In 2003, I stood for the first time as a candidate at parliamentary elections, graduated with a Master's Degree in social sciences and got engaged to my now wife, Maria Wetterstrand. By the end of the year, I had left behind the halcyon days of student politics. In 2004, I started historical research on a project financed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

 

Between 2003 and 2005, I was a member of the Green League's Board of Directors and from 2005 to 2007 I served as the party's deputy leader. As deputy leader, I was in charge of two major programmes: I chaired the working group on our party principles, which were adopted in 2006, and the working group on the basic income model, which was approved just before the spring 2007 parliamentary elections.

 

In October 2004, I was elected to the Turku City Council and appointed as the Green League's representative on the town board. I also chaired the party's group in the regional council. I married Maria in July 2004 and our son, Elias, was born in October. During Elias' first year, I had the chance to spend six months with him as Maria and I had decided to split our parental leave. It was a fantastic time.

 

In spring 2007, I was elected to Parliament. Our daughter, Linnea, was born in the summer and again I had the chance to spend four months on parental leave in spring 2008. In 2009, I was elected to chair the Green League's parliamentary group.

 

In 2011, I was elected for my second term in Parliament. In the summer of the same year, I was also elected as the party leader and when the Greens entered the Katainen Government, I was appointed Minister of the Environment.

 

My favourite sports are football, floorball and roller skating. In my youth, I played football for Kaarinan Pojat  and dreamed of becoming a professional. Football is still my greatest passion. Over recent years, I have mainly only had time for roller skating - this summer I covered almost 1,000 km on skates. In addition to being ecological, roller skating is an excellent way to enjoy summer evenings.