Sari Miriam Essayah (born 21 February 1967) is a Finnish retired

racewalker Race walking, or racewalking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully asses ...

and a politician, former

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 ...

(MEP) and Member of Parliament since 2015. She is the president of the Finnish Christian Democrats party. She is serving as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry since 2023. During her sports career, Essayah competed mainly in 5 and 10 kilometres. In the latter, she won the World Championship in 1993 and the European Championship in 1994. She made seven national records, all of which are still standing. In 2016, Essayah became a member of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

(IOC), and she has been a member of the Ethics Committee, Finnish Athletics Association since 2014.

Education

Her father is from

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. Essayah holds an M.Sc (Econ) in business administration and accounting from the

University of Vaasa The University of Vaasa (, ) is a multidisciplinary, business-oriented university in Vaasa, Finland. The campus of the university is situated by the Gulf of Bothnia adjacent to downtown Vaasa. The university has evolved from a school of econom ...

Political career

After retiring from sports Essayah entered politics and represented the Christian Democrats 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 P ...

between 2003–2007 but failed to get reelected in the election of 2007. She served as the Christian Democrats' party secretary from 2007 to 2009. Essayah was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

in 2009 but failed to be reelected in 2014 despite her 61 000 votes. This left the Finnish Christian Democrats without MEPs in the 2014 election. In November 2011 she undertook godparenthood for Mikola Dziadok, Belarusian activist and

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...

. Essayah was candidate in the 2012 Finnish presidential election. She came last with 2.47 percent of the votes. In the 2015 parliamentary elections, Essayah was elected to represent a newly formed constituency of Savonia and Karelia with over 11 000 votes. She was later chosen to be the vice speaker of the Christian Democrats' Parliamentary group. In August, she was chosen as the new chair of her party after her predecessor,

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, ...

, retired from the position after over ten years. Sari Essayah was re-elected in Finnish parliament in the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in cou ...

and re-elected for a third term as the party chair in a party congress in August. In June 2023, she was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in the Orpo Cabinet. On 27 August 2023, Essayah was chosen as the presidential candidate of Christian Democrats in 2024 Finnish presidential election. In the election, she received 1.48% of the total vote count.

Other activities

* Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), Member of the Advisory Council (since 2019)Advisory Council
Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA).

Achievements

References

External links

Sari Essayah website
* * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Essayah, Sari 1967 births Living people People from Mikkeli Finnish Pentecostals Finnish evangelists Finnish people of Moroccan descent Leaders of political parties in Finland Christian Democrats (Finland) politicians Members of the Parliament of Finland (2003–2007) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2015–2019) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2019–2023) Members of the Parliament of Finland (2023–2027) Christian Democrats (Finland) MEPs MEPs for Finland 2009–2014 21st-century women MEPs for Finland Candidates for President of Finland Finnish sportsperson-politicians Finnish female race walkers Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Finland World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Finnish International Olympic Committee members Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Women members of the Parliament of Finland Goodwill Games medalists in athletics FISU World University Games gold medalists for Finland FISU World University Games bronze medalists for Finland World Athletics Championships winners Medalists at the 1989 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 1991 Summer Universiade Competitors at the 1994 Goodwill Games Women evangelists Women government ministers of Finland Ministers of agriculture of Finland Finnish Athletics Championships winners