Tuula Haatainen leaves Helsinki to become next deputy CEO of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities

MP Päivi Lipponen still contemplating whether to run for vacant post as Helsinki Deputy Mayor

Tuula Haatainen

Päivi Lipponen

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MP Päivi Lipponen (SDP) has announced that she will wait until March to decide if she will apply for the post of Helsinki's Deputy Mayor for Education, Culture, and Personnel Affairs.
      The job became available on Thursday, when it was confirmed that the current deputy mayor Tuula Haatainen (SDP) had been elected as the deputy CEO of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (KL).
     
The mayoral office does not necessarily go automatically to a representative of the Social Democratic Party, however.
      Haatainen was elected to the post back in 2007 when the SDP was still the second-largest group within the Helsinki City Council.
      Now the Green League has the second-largest number of representatives in the council, behind the National Coalition Party. The Green League leadership have repeatedly emphasised that the party has to have more representatives among the city leadership.
     
“I will make up my mind whether to run only after there has been enough discussion regarding all the candidates within the Helsinki district organisation of the SDP”, Lipponen said on Thursday evening.
      Lipponen, 44, has a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Before her career as a politician, she worked as a teacher of history and social sciences at the Eira Upper Secondary School for Adults.
      Lipponen became an MP in 2007. She has held a seat on the Helsinki City Council since 1997.
     
The KL Board’s decision to select the 51-year-old Tuula Haatainen for the next seven-year term as the deputy managing director was unanimous. Haatainen will start in her new office in March.
      As a deputy managing director, Haatainen will be responsible for health and social affairs, education and culture, legal affairs, public administration, and competition policies.
      The post fell vacant when its previous holder Kari Nenonen (SDP) became the Mayor of Vantaa at the beginning of January.


Links:
  City of Helsinki: Tuula Haatainen

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