41 Facts About Jussi Halla-aho

Jussi Halla-aho was first elected to the Helsinki City Council in 2008 and to the Finnish parliament in 2011.

Jussi Halla-aho was elected leader of the Finns Party in the summer of 2017, defeating Sampo Terho, after which the majority of the party's MPs seceded in protest and formed a new party.

In spite of this, Jussi Halla-aho led the Finns Party to success in the 2019 election: it recovered all of its lost seats, becoming the second-largest party in parliament, and Jussi Halla-aho won the largest share of personal votes in the country.

Jussi Halla-aho has served as Speaker of Parliament since 21 June 2023.

Jussi Halla-aho grew up in Tampere and lived there 24 years.

Jussi Halla-aho later expressed regret at his decision, calling the choice a "stupid political protest", and voicing support for the present conscription system.

Jussi Halla-aho studied at the University of Helsinki from 1995 until 2006.

Jussi Halla-aho has published one article in an academic journal.

Jussi Halla-aho was elected a member of Helsinki City Council in the 2008 municipal elections as a candidate of the Finns Party, although he was not a member of the party until 2010.

Jussi Halla-aho won the largest number of personal votes for the party in Helsinki.

However, in the summer of 2012 Jussi Halla-aho resigned from the position of committee chairman, while staying as a member of the committee.

Jussi Halla-aho was re-elected to the Helsinki City Council in 2012, being the third most popular candidate nationwide.

Jussi Halla-aho was the second most popular candidate in the election with 80,772 votes.

Jussi Halla-aho sits in the European Conservatives and Reformists Group.

Jussi Halla-aho is a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, and a substitute member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.

In 2017, Jussi Halla-aho announced he would run for the party chair in the Finns Party leadership election, as the long-time leader of the party Timo Soini decided not to seek another term.

Jussi Halla-aho's selection resulted in a political crisis in Finland, as the leaders of the two other governing coalition parties, Prime Minister Juha Sipila of Centre and Finance Minister Petteri Orpo of the NCP, stated they would not co-operate with the Finns Party led by Halla-aho.

Jussi Halla-aho led the remainder of the party into the 2019 parliamentary election, gaining one new seat in comparison to the 2015 elections, while none of the Blue Reform candidates got elected.

Jussi Halla-aho did personally gain the most votes in the whole country and broke the record for most personal votes in Helsinki constituency.

In June 2021, Jussi Halla-aho informed that he is not running for re-election as chairman of party, but will continue in parliament and municipality.

In July 2023, Jussi Halla-aho announced his candidacy for the 2024 Finnish presidential election.

On 25 November 2023 Jussi Halla-aho addressed the Verkhovna Rada in Ukrainian on the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor.

Jussi Halla-aho has stated that he became politically active because he finds the Finnish immigration policy a problem and believes that Europe is heading towards a catastrophe because of massive immigration.

Jussi Halla-aho maintains a blog titled Scripta which states that it treats issues such as "immigration, multiculturalism, tolerance, racism, freedom of speech and political correctness".

Jussi Halla-aho's blog had between 3,000 and 6,000 readers a day in 2008, which made him the best known political blogger in Finland according to the newspaper Aamulehti.

Jussi Halla-aho has demanded that positive discrimination and what he calls privileges due to culture or nationality should not be allowed.

Jussi Halla-aho has disclosed that he has received death threats because of his web columns.

Jussi Halla-aho has been accused of racism by academics and members of the Finnish government, and has been connected to the counter-jihad movement, having previously been a contributor to the blog Gates of Vienna.

In December 2008, Jussi Halla-aho was put under investigation for incitement to ethnic or racial hatred for remarks published on his blog.

On 27 March 2009, the Helsinki District Court ordered Jussi Halla-aho to stand for trial on charges of ethnic agitation and breach of the sanctity of religion.

In 2019 Jussi Halla-aho said he still stands by his past writings.

In September 2011 Jussi Halla-aho wrote in Facebook that Greece's debt problems cannot be resolved without a military junta.

Jussi Halla-aho soon retracted the comment, clarifying that his intention was merely to point out that making necessary but unpopular decisions is not easy in a democracy.

Information was leaked to the press by the anonymous mother, who was disappointed that Jussi Halla-aho had always mentioned publicly that he only had four children.

Jussi Halla-aho confirmed the information when asked, but declined to further comment it.

Jussi Halla-aho's hobbies include reading astronomy as well as pistol and rifle shooting.

Jussi Halla-aho used to be a member of Suomen Sisu, an association that seeks to promote Finnish ethnic nationalism.

Jussi Halla-aho quit the association in June 2019, but did not specify why, though stating that he sees Finnish people as an ethnic folk.

Jussi Halla-aho is not a member in any church and considers himself a moderate agnostic atheist.

Jussi Halla-aho is occasionally referred as Mestari as a nickname among his supporters.

In 2009, Jussi Halla-aho published a collection of his web columns titled Kirjoituksia uppoavasta Lannesta in print.