Hakkanen, Leppä, Terho made new ministers

The three ruling parties of the coalition government on Thursday each chose a nominee to serve as the new ministers, as the cabinet is to expand to comprise 17 members.

The new ministers will be formally appointed by the President Sauli Niinistö soon.

The new Minister for Justice will be Antti Hakkanen, an MP from the Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party). The 32-year-old lawyer will be the youngest in the cabinet.

Before elected to the Parliament in 2015, he had served as an aide to conservative cabinet members. Hakkanen has been considered as a value conservative close to the traditional line of the party.

In economic matters, he has underlined the balance of public economy. Hakkanen said on Thursday he wanted to improve the preparatory work for legislation and enhance the role of the Ministry of Justice.

The current Minister for Justice and Labour Jari Lindström will continue with the labor portfolio only.

The new Minister for Agriculture and Forestry is Jari Leppä. The 57-year-old farmer has served five terms in the Parliament for the Suomen Keskusta (Centre Party).

Leppä has been known as a hard working MP with a fairly low profile. He runs a farm with 70 cows in southeastern Finland. The land has been a property of his family since the 16th century.

On Thursday, Leppä underlined the need to develop exports of farming products. Leppä made headline in July 2016 through a statement demanding that anti-Russia sanctions should be given up at the EU level or the EU should reimburse the losses to Finnish farmers in full.

Leppä will get the agriculture portfolio from Kimmo Tiilikainen, who will continue as Minister for the Environment.

In a further change in the centrist lineup, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä transferred the duty of supervising state-owned companies to Minister for Economic Development Mika Lintila. Lintila in turn will give energy matters to Kimmo Tiilikainen.

The new Minister for Culture, Sports and European Affairs will be Sampo Terho. Born in 1977, he is a history graduate and worked in the Defense Ministry before entering politics.

Terho was elected to the European Parliament as a Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party) member in 2011 and to the Finnish Parliament in 2015. He is running for the chairmanship of the Finns Party.

He is critical of the EU. He is chairman of the Association of Finnish Identity, which promotes the position of the Finnish language and is critical of the compulsory teaching of Swedish, the second national language in Finland.

Terho will get the culture portfolio from Sanni Grahn-Laasonen, who will continue to be Minister for Education. The European affairs will be transferred from Foreign Minister Timo Soini to Terho.

Terho was unwilling on Thursday to specify his future line on cultural affairs, but only underlined the importance of culture in general.

When formed in 2015, the incumbent cabinet featured many combined portfolios. Reports said the government members were overwhelmed with the duties and the experimental small-sized cabinet would come to an end.