Peter Johan Östman (born 16 December 1961) is 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 ...

and is the Chairman of the

Christian Democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

Parliamentary Group.

Early life

Ostman was born in 1961 in

Larsmo Larsmo (, ) is a municipality in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Larsmo is situated in Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Larsmo is approximately , while the sub-region has a population of approximat ...

, Ostrobothnia. His family comes from Larsmo and

Kronoby Kronoby (, ) is a municipality in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Kronoby is situated in Ostrobothnia (administrative region), Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Kronoby is approximately , while the Jakobs ...

Career

Östman has been a Member of Parliament representing the Constituency of

Vaasa Vaasa (; , ), formerly (1855-1917) known as Nikolaistad (; ),Päivi Räsänen Päivi Maria Räsänen, née Kuvaja (born 19 December 1959), is a Finnish politician. The chairwoman of the Christian Democrats from 2004 to 2015, she was the Minister of the Interior of Finland between 2011 and 2015. A physician by education, ...

. Östman supports the maintenance of

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

status. His candidacy to become the vice chair of the party was supported by the Christian Democrats' Swedish-speaking organization. Ostman supports a ban on

swastikas The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

in Finland and has voiced concern over the status of

antisemitism in Finland The history of the Jews in Finland goes back to the late 18th century. Many of the first Jews to arrive were nineteenth-century Russian soldiers (known as cantonists) who stayed in Finland after their military service ended. The two synagogues i ...

. He has also pressured the Finnish government to outlaw

Holocaust denial Historical negationism, Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazi Party, Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: ...

References

, - , - 1961 births Living people People from Larsmo Swedish-speaking Finns Christian Democrats (Finland) politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (2011–2015) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2015–2019) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2019–2023) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2023–2027) {{Finland-politician-stub