Tarja Kaarina Halonen is a Finnish politician who served as the 11th president of Finland, and the first woman to hold the position, from 2000 to 2012.
55 Facts About Tarja Halonen
2.
Tarja Halonen first rose to prominence as a lawyer with the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, and as the Prime Minister's parliamentary secretary and a member of the City Council of Helsinki.
3.
Tarja Halonen served as a minister at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health from 1987 to 1990, as Minister of Justice from 1990 to 1991, and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 2000.
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Tarja Halonen was an extremely popular president, with her approval ratings reaching a peak of 88 percent in December 2003.
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Ineligible to run in the 2012 presidential elections because of term limits, Tarja Halonen left office on 1 March 2012 and was succeeded by Niinisto.
6.
Widely known for her interest in human rights issues, Tarja Halonen served as the chairperson of the Finnish LGBT rights organization Seta in the 1980s, and she actively participated in the discussion of issues such as women's rights and the problems of globalization during her presidency.
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Tarja Halonen is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.
8.
Tarja Halonen was born on 24 December 1943 in the district of Kallio, which at the time was a traditional working-class area in central Helsinki.
9.
Tarja Halonen's mother Lyyli Elina Loimola was a set-dresser and her father Vieno Olavi Halonen worked as a welder.
10.
Halonen's parents married at the beginning of World War II and Tarja was born a few years later.
11.
Vieno Tarja Halonen was at the frontline during the Continuation War and Lyyli Tarja Halonen was working in a shoe factory when their daughter was born.
12.
When Tarja Halonen was two years old, her father Vieno Tarja Halonen went to the kiosk to buy a magazine and no longer returned home to his family.
13.
Tarja Halonen has not commented much on the incident since, but Tarja Halonen's parents officially divorced in 1948.
14.
Vieno Tarja Halonen was an award-winning soldier who fought in the 26th Infantry Regiment, so-called Ace Regiment.
15.
Vieno Tarja Halonen was wounded three times during the war and after the war he was awarded first, second and fourth class Order of the Cross of Liberty medals.
16.
In later interviews, Tarja Halonen has said that she has met her father only a few times.
17.
Tarja Halonen later said that her mother was a true survivor, always an extremely active and resilient person who valued good, honest and modest hardworking people.
18.
When she entered politics, Tarja Halonen stated that these are the qualities and attributes she respects in people.
19.
Tarja Halonen began to study Art History in the University of Helsinki in 1962 but in autumn 1963 she changed her studies to law, and obtained her Master of Laws degree in 1968 specializing in criminal law.
20.
Tarja Halonen began to work as a lawyer, already before obtaining her degree, in a credit surveillance company Luotonvalvonta oy in 1967.
21.
In 1971, Tarja Halonen joined the Social Democratic Party which had close ties with the trade unions in which she worked as a lawyer from 1970 to 1974.
22.
Tarja Halonen responded that the committee was formed by members from many different political parties including conservative parties.
23.
Tarja Halonen became acquainted with the world of Finnish politics and government and her political career took a great step forward, as she went on to hold a number of public offices.
24.
Tarja Halonen was elected to the City Council of Helsinki, a position she held continuously for five terms from 1977 to 1996.
25.
Tarja Halonen served five full terms and less than a year of her sixth term in Parliament until her inauguration as President in 2000.
26.
In 1987, Tarja Halonen was appointed Minister of Social Affairs and Health by Prime Minister Harri Holkeri.
27.
Tarja Halonen announced in 1999 that she wished to stand as a candidate for President in the 2000 presidential elections.
28.
Tarja Halonen won the preliminaries by a landslide, getting 7,800 out of 12,800 votes.
29.
Tarja Halonen was a surprising candidate as she didn't represent many traditional values: she was known as a left-wing social democratic party member, who lived in a domestic partnership, was a single parent and had resigned from the national church.
30.
On 20 May 2005, Tarja Halonen held a press conference in Mantyniemi where she announced her willingness to run for a second term.
31.
In those flyers, "Niinisto is presented as the horror of worker, whereas SAK-supported Tarja Halonen is like a worker's dream".
32.
Tarja Halonen endorsed Halonen and produced humorous mock campaign ads and attack ads against her opponents.
33.
Tarja Halonen went as far as visiting Finland and meeting Halonen.
34.
Tarja Halonen led in the advance voting, but she eventually received fewer votes on the actual voting day than Mr Niinisto did.
35.
Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga asked what she meant and whether Tarja Halonen is actively opposing NATO membership of Baltic countries.
36.
Tarja Halonen has opposed the use of landmines in Finnish military doctrine.
37.
Tarja Halonen has defended cluster bombs and did not sign a treaty which would have banned Finland from using these kinds of weapons.
38.
In 2008, Tarja Halonen nominated SDP-affiliated Ritva Viljanen for a second term in the Ministry of the Interior.
39.
In September 2008, Tarja Halonen was perceived as insulting Estonia by saying that the Estonians suffer from a "post-Soviet stress condition".
40.
In 2009, Tarja Halonen rejected calls to apologize for Finland's attitude towards Estonian independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
41.
Early in her political career Tarja Halonen represented the far-left wing of the SDP.
42.
Tarja Halonen publicly opposed the proposed free trade agreement of the European Economic Community in 1973, by signing a petition along with 500 other prominent social democrats and socialists.
43.
Tarja Halonen describes herself as a "relative pacifist", meaning that she does not support unilateral disarmament.
44.
Tarja Halonen has strongly defended the President's role as the commander in chief of the military.
45.
Tarja Halonen's strong stands on these issues have characterised her presidential term and shaped Finnish foreign policy, in part in cooperation with the like-minded former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erkki Tuomioja.
46.
Tarja Halonen has publicly supported the involvement of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions in politics.
47.
On 20 March 2013, Tarja Halonen publicly voiced her support for same-sex marriage.
48.
President Tarja Halonen says her interests include art history, the theatre and swimming.
49.
Tarja Halonen says she speaks Finnish, Swedish, and English, and is studying Estonian.
50.
On 26 August 2000, President Tarja Halonen married her longtime partner, Dr Pentti Arajarvi, in a civil ceremony at her official residence, Mantyniemi, after a relationship of more than fifteen years.
51.
Tarja Halonen promotes Finland in her personal accoutrements, such as wearing a Moomin watch.
52.
The church has since accepted women as priests, and Tarja Halonen has stated that she has no personal reason not to return to the church but refrains from doing so in order not to give a signal that might be misinterpreted.
53.
Since then, Tarja Halonen has even preached publicly in a divine service of her home parish of Kallio.
54.
Tarja Halonen was criticized on her views that the Covid-19-pandemic was handled better in countries with female leaders.
55.
Tarja Halonen appears as an animated character in the political satire TV series The Autocrats.