Mitro Repo (born September 3, 1958) is a Finnish Orthodox Christian priest. He was

member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

from 2009 until 2014, elected as an independent candidate on the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

's ticket. He ran also in the 2014 election but received less than 9,000 votes compared to over 70,000 in the 2009 election, and was not re-elected. Repo is a third generation priest. He studied theology at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

. Repo's position on the Finnish Church's involvement in splitting the Estonian Orthodox Church led him into a conflict with metropolitan Johannes in the 1990s. Repo has been a popular speaker and commentator in radio and television talk shows. In addition to his church services, he has visited workers in their factories and financial and business leaders. Repo was asked by several parties to run as a candidate in European Parliament elections, and he finally chose the Social Democrats. His decision to stand in the election led to a conflict between Repo and the church leadership. In the end, the

Finnish Orthodox Church The Orthodox Church in Finland (; ) is an Autonomy (Eastern Orthodoxy), autonomous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox archdiocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The church has a legal position as a national church in th ...

banned him from serving in religious services and wearing his trademark priestly outfit. His candidacy and election to the EU Parliament in 2009 aroused some interest in the international press, e.g., in Le Monde and in The New York Times. During his term in the European Parliament, Mitro Repo served in the committee for culture and education and the committee for the internal market and consumer protection.EP group
, SDP Finland.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Repo, Mitro Finnish Christian clergy 21st-century Finnish clergy Social Democratic Party of Finland MEPs Members of the Orthodox Church of Finland Eastern Orthodox Christians from Finland MEPs for Finland 2009–2014 Living people 1958 births