Päivi Maria Räsänen, née Kuvaja (born 19 December 1959, in

Sonkajärvi Sonkajärvi (; formerly known as ''Rutakko'') is a municipality of Finland. It is located in Northern Savonia region, north of Kuopio. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

), is a Finnish politician. The chairwoman of the

Christian Democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social ...

from 2004 to 2015, she was the

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

of Finland between 2011 and 2015. A physician by education, Räsänen entered politics in the early 1990s, running for parliament in 1991. She has been in the

Riihimäki Riihimäki (literally "Drying barn hill") is a town and municipality in the south of Finland, about north of Helsinki and southeast of Tampere. An important railway junction is located in Riihimäki, since railway tracks from Riihimäki lead to ...

City Council since 1993, and in the

Finnish Parliament The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. The ...

since 1995. She was elected the chairperson of the Christian Democrats on 2 October 2004. Following the government formation after the 2011 election, which led to the Christian Democrats joining the government, Räsänen was nominated by the party as the

in the 72nd Finnish Cabinet led by

Jyrki Katainen Jyrki Tapani Katainen (born 14 October 1971) is a Finnish politician who served as the European Commission's Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness from 2014 until 2019. Katainen was previously Prime Minister of Finland fr ...

, and she was inaugurated along with the government on 22 June 2011.

Career and political positions

Räsänen has been characterized as a conservative. In 2004, she authored a small theological booklet concerning sexual related topics. In 2020, the head of a church body which distributed the booklet was investigated for incitement under 2011 changes to a minority protection law. On 12 October 2010, Räsänen was one of the participants on a live TV debate on '' Ajankohtainen kakkonens ''Homoilta'' special, with the topic of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights. As a protest, nearly 40,000 members left the state Evangelical Lutheran Church through the website '' eroakirkosta.fi'' over the next several weeks. At the time, this was the largest of such protests. Räsänen was on the show representing her party and herself as a Christian individual along with five other proponents of heterosexual rather than homosexual marriage. The church membership resignations were attributed by the media as a protest against her and then-Minister of Culture and Sports Stefan Wallin. Räsänen thinks homosexual acts are a sin and she herself does not consider her views "specifically extreme". When interviewed by ''

Ylioppilaslehti ''Ylioppilaslehti'' (Finnish: lit. "Student newspaper") is a Finnish student magazine founded in 1913. It is the largest student paper or magazine in Finland with a circulation of 35,000 copies. In addition to affairs related to university studies ...

'' on 29 October 2010, Räsänen said that she would favor Christians over

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

when selecting asylum seekers to Finland due, in her opinion, to Muslims' "difficulties to adjust to the Finnish culture". Her comments were condemned as "incomprehensible and merciless" by then-Minister of Migration and European Affairs

Astrid Thors Astrid Gunilla Margareta Thors (born 6 November 1957) has been a Member of the Finnish Parliament 19 March 2003 – 4 September 2013. A Finnish-Swedish politician, formerly of the Swedish People's Party, Thors is a Candidate of Law and held seve ...

and then-Minister of Culture and Sports Stefan Wallin. Räsänen responded to the criticism, saying her comments were misinterpreted, since she did not consider religion as the main criterion for asylum seekers' admissions, but instead she wanted to highlight the benefits of refugees' integration through religious connections. In practice, as minister in charge of immigration affairs Räsänen has advocated for increasing the number of refugees taken in by Finland, especially from Syria. In September 2012, Räsänen appointed a religiously conservative applicant, considered less qualified by the media, among six candidates to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Interior Affairs, which created considerable debate, especially as she had previously condemned political appointments of government officials. During parliamentary proceedings for Finland's application to join NATO, Räsänen stated:

At great turning points in history, it has taken determination and courage to act, but also humility in the face of the unknown. It is known that the human equipment of the most effective is limited. " Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." That is why even today we need the same protection that
Mannerheim Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (, ; 4 June 1867 – 27 January 1951) was a Finnish military leader and statesman. He served as the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War of 1918, as Regent of Finland (1918–1919), as comm ...
reminded in his daily devotional order: "May God protect Finland."

Trial

In 2019, she was investigated for incitement after criticizing the

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland ( fi, Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko; sv, Evangelisk-lutherska kyrkan i Finland) is a national church of Finland. It is part of the Lutheran branch of Christianity. The church has a legal positio ...

's official participation in LGBT Pride celebration events. In April 2021, Finnish Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen announced that three separate charges of incitement against a minority group were being filed against her. The charges fell under a chapter of Finnish law which criminalizes "war crimes and crimes against humanity" and each charge can result in a prison sentence up to two years. The first part of her trial was held on 24 January 2022 and the second part of her trial was held on 14 February. The trial attracted international media, and the statements and testimonies of both the firstLiveblog (stopped): Trial against Christian MP Pävi Räsänen will resume in February
''Christian Network Europe'', 24 January 2022 and secondLiveblog (closed): Second day of hearing in case against Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen
''Christian Network Europe'', 2 February 2022 parts of the trial and also the court's decision was live-blogged in English by Christian Network Europe.

Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland The Mission Diocese, officially the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, ( fi, Suomen evankelisluterilainen lähetyshiippakunta, sv, Evangelisk-lutherska missionsstiftet i Finland) is an independent confessional Lutheran "ecclesial s ...

bishop Juhana Pohjola was tried along with Räsänen; Pohjola was tried as the publisher of the 2004 booklet. At the start of the proceedings, the prosecution asked for a

day-fine A day-fine, day fine, unit fine or structured fine is a unit of fine payment that, above a minimum fine, is based on the offender's daily personal income. A crime is punished with incarceration for a determined number of days, or with fines. As in ...

of at least 120 days for Räsänen, 60 days for Pohjola, and a community fine of at least 10,000

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s for the Luther Foundation. An additional demand from the prosecution was for the Luther Foundation to remove the text of Räsänen's pamphlet from the internet and for the Finnish public broadcasting company

Yle Yleisradio Oy ( Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, found ...

to remove certain passages from Ruben Stiller’s radio interview with panelists discussing the question of "What would Jesus think of homosexuals?". Representatives of 45 Lutheran church bodies called on the Finnish government to not prosecute her. She was likewise supported by the European Evangelical Alliance and the Spanish Evangelical Alliance. Five senators from the United States warned the

United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom The United States ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom is the ambassador-at-large who heads the Office of International Religious Freedom in the U.S. Department of State. The position was created by the International Religi ...

that the decision to prosecute them risked creating a "secular blasphemy law" to persecute Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Ten academics from the United States signed an open letter to the

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a U.S. federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the lead ...

stating that the "prosecutions are straightforward acts of oppression". The District Court found her and Pohjola not guilty of all charges and ordered the prosecution to pay their legal costs on 30 March 2022. In response to the ruling, the prosecutor Anu Mantila stated that the District Court "interpreted the statements differently than the prosecution and that's why they viewed that the limits of freedom of speech weren't breached... It’s my impression that this is because the elements that infringed on equality and the prohibition of discrimination weren't taken into consideration accordingly." Mantila stated that the verdict was incorrect and unjust and said there was "a high probability" she would appeal it. Later the prosecutor's office publicly announced an intent to appeal, which it did on April 29, 2022. Räsänen estimated that judicial proceedings "will take at least one year, I suppose, perhaps many more years".

Stance on abortion

Räsänen opposes

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...

. Räsänen contrasted abortion law to animal protection law saying that the latter gives better protection for animals than the former does to human fetuses:

"The law on animal protection gives better protection to an animal about to be put down than the law on abortion does to an unborn child. It is forbidden to cause the animal pain when slaughtering it, but no one dares to even discuss the painfulness of abortion. Abortion is defended on the grounds that the fetus is not a human person, even though it is a biological human individual from the moment of conception."

About 6,500 abortion rights supporters formally renounced their state church membership in the first six days following the controversy. The average number leaving had been 70 persons a day previously.

Personal life

Räsänen is married to a Lutheran pastor, has five children, and ten grandchildren. She lives in

. Räsänen is a physician and holds a Licentiate of Medicine.

References