Maria Tuulia Lohela (, born 11 June 1978) is a Finnish politician. She has served as a Member of the

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

from 2011 to 2019. After having maintained her seat in the 2015 election, Lohela was Speaker of the Parliament of Finland from 2015 to 2018. 36 years old when elected Speaker, she was one of the youngest MPs to hold that office in the parliament's history. Before her parliamentary career, she took her bachelor's degree at the

University of Turku The University of Turku (, shortened ''UTU'') is a multidisciplinary public university with eight faculties located in the city of Turku in southwestern Finland. The university also has campuses in Rauma and Pori and research stations in Kevo ...

, majoring in

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

. She has also served as a member of the

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

City Council from 2009 to 2012 and again from 2017 to 2019. Lohela has been a proponent of a tighter immigration policy for Finland. Along with a few other

Finns Party The Finns Party ( , PS; , Sannf), formerly known as the True Finns, is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The party achieved its electoral breakthro ...

politicians, she was one of the authors of the ''Nuiva Manifesti'' (Finnish for ''The Sour Manifesto''), an election campaign programme critical of Finnish immigration policy. On 13 June 2017, Lohela and 19 others left the Finns Party Parliamentary Group to found the

New Alternative The Finnish Reform Movement (, Korj), previously known as Blue Reform (), was a Finland, Finnish Conservatism, conservative Political parties in Finland, political party. It was founded by the 19 MPs who left the Finns Party on 13 June 2017 in p ...

(later Blue Reform) parliamentary group, which subsequently took the place of the Finns Party in the

Sipilä cabinet The cabinet of Juha Sipilä was the 74th government of Finland, from 2015 to 2019. It was formed following the parliamentary election of 2015 and formally appointed by President Sauli Niinistö on 29 May 2015. From June 2017, the cabinet con ...

. The split sparked debate on the seat of the Speaker, which was traditionally reserved for the second biggest parliamentary party. After negotiations, the parties came into the conclusion that Lohela would vacate her seat for the

National Coalition Party The National Coalition Party (NCP; , Kok; , Saml) is a liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in Finland, political party in Finland. It is the current governing political party of Finland. Founded in 1918, the ...

in February 2018. On 5 February 2018, Paula Risikko was elected as the next speaker, while Lohela returned to her role as an MP. On 21 January 2019, Lohela announced that she would leave the Blue Reform in order to join Liike Nyt movement.

References

External links

Parliament of Finland: Maria Lohela

Website
1978 births Living people People from Nivala Finns Party politicians Blue Reform politicians Movement Now politicians Speakers of the Parliament of Finland Members of the Parliament of Finland (2011–2015) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2015–2019) 21st-century Finnish women politicians Women members of the Parliament of Finland University of Turku alumni {{FinnsParty-politician-stub