Timo Soini

Who is Timo Soini?

Timo Juhani Soini is a Finnish politician, the co-founder and current leader of the Finns Party. He was a member of the European Parliament from 2009 until 2011, when he returned to the Parliament of Finland. Well known as an EU-sceptic populist, he was elected a member of the Espoo city council in 2000 and the Parliament of Finland in 2003. In the 2009 European Parliament election he won a seat in the European Parliament with Finland's highest personal vote share, becoming the first True Finn in the European Parliament.

In the 2011 parliamentary election, his party won 19.1% of the votes, which was described as "shocking" and "exceptional" by the Finnish media. Soini himself won the most votes of all candidates, leaving behind the Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb and the Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen in their Uusimaa electoral district. Helsingin Sanomat concluded that "Timo Soini rewrote the electoral history books".

Soini has become one of the internationally best-known critics of European Union bailouts and safety mechanisms.