21 Facts About Petteri Orpo

Petteri Orpo briefly served as speaker of the Parliament of Finland after the 2023 parliamentary election.

Petteri Orpo served as Deputy Prime Minister of Finland from 2017 to 2019, Minister of Finance from 2016 to 2019, Minister of the Interior from 2015 to 2016 and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry from 2014 to 2015.

Antti Petteri Orpo was born on 3 November 1969 in Koylio, Finland.

Petteri Orpo's father, Hannu Orpo, was a politician and member of the National Coalition Party.

Petteri Orpo passed the Finnish matriculation exams and graduated from Koylion lukio.

Later Petteri Orpo earned a master's degree in political science from the University of Turku.

Petteri Orpo attended Finland's mandatory national armed service and became a reserve officer.

In May 2016, Petteri Orpo announced that he would challenge the chair of the National Coalition Party and incumbent Minister of Finance Alexander Stubb in June's party conference.

At the time, Petteri Orpo joined second-term parliamentarian Elina Valtonen in seeking to replace Stubb.

In contrast to polyglot and outspoken Stubb, Petteri Orpo was widely seen as a careful consensus-seeker with little experience of international politics.

Petteri Orpo received 441,4 votes against Stubb's 361 and was thus elected as the new chair for the party.

Petteri Orpo soon announced that he would take Stubb's seat as the Minister of Finance.

Petteri Orpo was officially appointed as the Minister of Finance on 22 June 2016.

In June 2017, Prime Minister Juha Sipila and Petteri Orpo announced said they could not cooperate with their parties' third coalition partner, the Finns Party, anymore, citing differences in core values and in the immigration and EU policies.

In December 2019 Petteri Orpo attempted a vote of no-confidence in the incumbent government.

Petteri Orpo began government formation talks when the new parliament and President convened the week after Easter and named him as the lead negotiator.

Petteri Orpo campaigned on a platform of reducing Finland's government debt and the yearly budget deficit as well as reducing income taxes.

Petteri Orpo's party received eight cabinet posts, the Finns Party seven, while the Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats shared the remaining five.

Petteri Orpo became Prime Minister of Finland on 20 June 2023.

In March 2024 Petteri Orpo stated in Politico that the Finns are not a far-right party anymore in his opinion.

In 2024, Petteri Orpo condemned racist attacks made against Daniela Owusu, a Finnish-Ghanian woman who was elected to serve as Saint Lucy for the national Saint Lucy's Day celebrations, and issued a formal apology to Owusu.