Much as anticipated, the Minister of Public Administration and Local Government Mari Kiviniemi announced on Friday that she will be taking part in the contest for the leadership of the Centre Party made vacant by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen's decision not to seek re-election at this year's party conference. Kiviniemi states in the online edition of the Centre Party newspaper Suomenmaa that she is also ready to become PM, if this task falls to the new Centre Party chairman.
Kiviniemi is the second to formally declare an interest in the race, after the veteran Centre Party poltician and present Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen announced his own candidacy on Tuesday.
The leadership will be decided by the party conference delegates in June.
Kiviniemi acknowledged that the merging of the roles of mother and politician was a challenging issue for her, too, although she no longer has very young children at home.
The 41-year-old is a four-term MP, and was elected in 2007 from the Helsinki constituency after representing Vaasa in three Parliaments.
