Ville Tapani Tavio (born June 25, 1984) is a Finnish politician and member of the Parliament of Finland (MP).[1] He became the chairperson of the Finns Party Parliamentary Group in April 2019.[2][3] He has been Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade since June 2023.

Ville Tavio
Tavio in 2023
Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade
Assumed office
20 June 2023
Prime MinisterPetteri Orpo
Preceded byVille Skinnari
Chairperson of the Finns Party Parliamentary Group
Assumed office
23 April 2019
Preceded byLeena Meri
Member of the Finnish Parliament
for Finland Proper
Assumed office
22 April 2015
Personal details
Born
Ville Tapani Tavio

(1984-06-25) 25 June 1984 (age 40)
Lappeenranta, South Karelia, Finland
Political partyFinns Party
WebsiteOfficial website

Education

edit

After upper secondary school graduation, Tavio enrolled in the University of Turku and received LL.M. degree in 2012. He has been an exchange student at the Prince of Songkla University in Thailand in 2010.[4]

Political career

edit

Tavio joined the Finns Party in 2012.[5] He was first elected to the Turku City Council in October 2012 and to the Parliament of Finland in April 2015.

In June 2023, he was appointed Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade in the Orpo Cabinet.[6]

Controversies

edit

After his appointment in June 2023, Tavio's past remarks came under scrutiny, as he had continuously claimed in the Parliament that ethnic Finns are being demographically replaced with non-white peoples, thus referring to the Great Replacement. Finnish Security Intelligence Service considers that the Great Replacement is one of the noteworthy ideological motivations of far-right terrorism.[7]

Tavio has also written that, if living in the Wild West, "climate-crazed" president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen would have been "kicked out of the country and dipped in oil and feathers". These writings circulated widely in German media after Tavio's appointment.[8]

References

edit
  1. ^ IS (2019-04-15). "Tässä uusi eduskunta – katso kaikki 200 kansanedustajaa". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 2019-09-21.
  2. ^ Jantunen, Salla; Joensuu (2019-08-29). "Ville Tavio arvostelee hallituksen taloustoimia: Perussuomalaisten linja on, että valtio ei voi jakaa sellaista, mitä sillä ei ole". Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 2019-09-21.
  3. ^ Taponen, Aki (April 23, 2019). "Turkulainen Tavio Perussuomalaisten eduskuntaryhmän johtoon". Turun Sanomat (in Finnish). TS-Yhtymä oy. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  4. ^ Tavio, Ville (September 16, 2019). "CV of Ville Tavio" (PDF). Retrieved September 26, 2019.
  5. ^ Ollikainen, Jasmina (May 16, 2019). "Ville Tavio: "Suomi on suomalaisten kansallisvaltio"". Kansalainen (in Finnish). Vapaan sanan tuki ry. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
  6. ^ "Prime Minister Orpo's Government appointed". Valtioneuvosto. Retrieved 2023-06-21.
  7. ^ "Ministeri Ville Tavio on puhunut väestönvaihdosta useita kertoja eduskunnassa". Helsingin Sanomat. 2023-07-03. Retrieved 2023-07-04.
  8. ^ "Das Gruselkabinett". Süddeutsche Zeitung. 2023-07-04. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
edit