Päivi Maria Räsänen, née Kuvaja (born 19 December 1959), is a Finnish politician. She was the chairwoman of the Christian Democrats from 2004 to 2015, and the Minister of the Interior of Finland between 2011 and 2015.
A physician by education, Räsänen entered politics in the early 1990s. She has been in the Riihimäki City Council since 1993, and in the Finnish Parliament since 1995. Following the 2011 parliamentary elections, Räsänen served as the Minister of the Interior until 2015, holding the position in both the Katainen and Stubb cabinets.
In 2021, Räsänen was charged with incitement against a minority group for several statements alleged to be discriminatory toward homosexuals. After being unanimously acquitted of all charges by both the Helsinki District Court (2022) and the Helsinki Court of Appeal (2023), she was convicted on one of the charges by the Supreme Court of Finland in March 2026.
Early life and a career as a physician Päivi Räsänen was born in Sonkajärvi, North Savo on 19 December 1959.Parliament of Finland: Päivi Räsänen She spent her childhood and youth in Konnunsuo, Joutseno, in South Karelia. She graduated from Joutseno High School in 1978, achieving six laudatur grades (the highest possible grade) on her matriculation exams.
In 1984, Räsänen graduated as a Licentiate of Medicine from the University of Helsinki. She worked as a physician in the internal medicine department of Riihimäki Regional Hospital from 1985 to 1988, as a private practitioner from 1988 to 1992, and as a state occupational health physician from 1992 to 1995. Her interest in societal advocacy was initially sparked by medical ethics and her opposition to abortion. Räsänen served on the board of the Finnish Christian Medical Association from 1988 to 1994.
Political career
Räsänen entered politics in the 1990s with a focus on family policy. She first ran for the Parliament of Finland in the 1991 elections but was not elected. In the 1992 municipal elections, she was elected to the Riihimäki City Council, running as an independent candidate on the ticket of the Finnish Christian League (renamed Christian Democrats in 2001).
In the 1995 parliamentary elections, Räsänen was elected to the parliament from the Häme constituency with 5 976 votes. In 2003, Räsänen was elected vice chair of her parliamentary group. She was elected the chair of the Christian Democrats on 2 October 2004.
Following the government formation after the 2011 election, which led to the Christian Democrats joining the government, Räsänen was nominated by the party as the Minister of the Interior in the 72nd Finnish Cabinet led by Jyrki Katainen, and she was inaugurated along with the government on 22 June 2011. When Alexander Stubb succeeded Jyrki Katainen as Prime Minister in June 2014, Räsänen continued in the same role, serving in the Stubb Cabinet until the 2015 elections.
Following the Christian Democrats' defeat in the 2015 parliamentary elections and their subsequent move to the opposition, Räsänen stepped down as party chair.
Political positions Räsänen belongs to the conservative wing of the Christian Democrats. She opposes abortion, same-sex marriage, and the ordination of women, and supports the view that the man is the head of the family.
On 12 October 2010, Räsänen was one of the participants on a live TV debate on Ajankohtainen kakkonen'''s Homoilta special, with the topic of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights. As a protest, nearly 40,000 members left the state Evangelical Lutheran Church through the website eroakirkosta.fi over the next several weeks. At the time, this was the largest of such protests. Räsänen was on the show representing her party and herself as a Christian individual along with five other proponents of heterosexual rather than homosexual marriage. The church membership resignations were attributed by the media as a protest against her and then-Minister of Culture and Sports Stefan Wallin. Räsänen thinks homosexual acts are a sin and she herself does not consider her views "specifically extreme".
When interviewed by Ylioppilaslehti on 29 October 2010, Räsänen said that she would favor Christians over Muslims when selecting asylum seekers to Finland due, in her opinion, to Muslims' "difficulties to adjust to the Finnish culture". Her comments were condemned as "incomprehensible and merciless" by then-Minister of Migration and European Affairs Astrid Thors and then-Minister of Culture and Sports Stefan Wallin. Räsänen responded to the criticism, saying her comments were misinterpreted, since she did not consider religion as the main criterion for asylum seekers' admissions, but instead she wanted to highlight the benefits of refugees' integration through religious connections. In practice, as minister in charge of immigration affairs Räsänen advocated for increasing the number of refugees taken in by Finland, especially from Syria.Sisäministeri Räsänen ottaisi Suomeen 300 kiintiöpakolaista lisää ensi vuonna, Yle.fi, 9 July 2014, accessed 9 July 2014.
In September 2012, Räsänen appointed a religiously conservative applicant, considered less qualified by the media, among six candidates to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Interior Affairs, which created considerable debate, especially as she had previously condemned political appointments of government officials.
Stance on abortion Räsänen opposes abortion. In a speech in July 2013 Räsänen contrasted abortion law to animal protection law saying that the latter gives better protection for animals than the former does to human unborn children.(: “Eläinsuojelulaki antaa paremman suojan lopetettavalle eläimelle kuin aborttilaki syntymättömälle lapselle. Eläimelle ei saa teurastettaessa tuottaa kipua, mutta abortin kivuliaisuudesta ei uskalleta edes keskustella. Aborttia puolustetaan sillä, että sikiö ei ole ihmispersoona, vaikka onkin hedelmöityksestä lähtien biologinen ihmisyksilö”) Räsänen's speech, Matskut.helsinki.fi
About 6,500 abortion supporters formally renounced their state church membership in the first six days following the controversy. The average number leaving had been 70 persons a day previously.Räsäs-kohun aikana yli 6500 eronnut kirkosta, Kaleva.fi, 17 July 2013Räsänen’s comments cause spike in church resignations, Yle.fi, 11 July 2013
Trial for hate speech
Pre-trial investigations In Autumn 2019, the Finnish police started a pre-trial investigation on Räsänen for incitement against a minority group after she criticised the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland's official participation in LGBTQ Pride events.Finnish Christian MP under incitement investigation for quoting the New Testament by Samuli Siikavirta, Evangelical Focus, 2 September 2019 In November the same year, a second investigation was initiated regarding a 2004 booklet written by Räsänen and published by the Luther Foundation Finland. Titled "Male and Female He Created Them – Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity," the 24-page pamphlet presents an argument against same-sex relationships.Mieheksi ja naiseksi hän heidät loi – homosuhteet haastavat kristillisen ihmiskäsityksen [Male and Female He Created Them – Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity] by Päivi Räsänen, Lutheran Heritage Foundation, Macomb, Michigan (in Finnish) A third investigation was opened regarding Räsänen's statements on a Yle Puhe radio interview in December 2019. The episode was titled "What did Jesus think about homosexuals?".
In April 2021, Finnish Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen announced that three separate charges were being filed against Räsänen: for statements made in the 2004 booklet, writings on the websites of the Luther Foundation Finland and the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, and statements on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and on the Yle Puhe radio interview. Each charge carried a maximum penalty of up to two years in prison.The unstoppable march of state censorship, Spiked, 17 May 2021
The case gained international attention, and Räsänen began receiving legal support from ADF International, a conservative Christian legal advocacy organization. The International Lutheran Council published a petition of 45 conservative Lutheran church bodies, calling on the Finnish government to refrain from prosecuting her.A Protest and Call for Free Religious Speech in Finland, 29 June 2021, International Lutheran Council She was likewise supported by the European Evangelical Alliance and the Spanish Evangelical Alliance.European Evangelical Alliance Sends Letter to Finnish Government Expressing "Dismay" Over Päivi Räsänen Case, European Evangelical Alliance news, 17 May 2021 Five senators from the United States (Marco Rubio, James Lankford, Josh Hawley, Mike Braun and James Inhofe) warned the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom that the decision to prosecute them risked creating a "secular blasphemy law" to prosecute Christians, Muslims, and Jews.US senators fear Finnish MP's trial could pave the way for more prosecutions of Christians by Julian Mann, Christian Today, 25 January 2022; text of letter at 01.24.22 Letter to IRF Ambassador Ten academics from the United States signed an open letter to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom stating that the "prosecutions are straightforward acts of oppression".A Letter to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom by Peter Berkowitz, Keegan Callanan, Carlos Eire, Robert P. George, Mary Ann Glendon, Sergiu Klainerman, John B. Londregan, Jacqueline C. Rivers, David Rivkin, and Adrian Vermeule, RealClearPolitics, 28 May 2021
District Court and the Court of Appeal The first part of her trial was held in Helsinki District Court on 24 January 2022Freedom of Religion and Speech Is on Trial in Finland by Elyssa Koren, National Review, 24 January 2022 and the second part of her trial was held on 14 February.Trial of Räsänen and Pohjola completed: decision comes at the end of March by Matti Korhonen and Uusi Ti, Evangelical Focus, 15 February 2022 The statements and testimonies of both the firstLiveblog (stopped): Trial against Christian MP Pävi Räsänen will resume in February, Christian Network Europe, 24 January 2022 and secondLiveblog (closed): Second day of hearing in case against Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, Christian Network Europe, 2 February 2022 parts of the trial and also the court's decisionLiveblog (closed): Charges are dropped in case against Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, Christian Network Europe, 30 March 2022 were live-blogged in English by Christian Network Europe. Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland bishop Juhana Pohjola was tried along with Räsänen as the publisher of the 2004 booklet. At the start of the proceedings, the prosecution asked for a day-fine of at least 120 days for Räsänen, 60 days for Pohjola, and a community fine of at least 10,000 euros for the Luther Foundation. An additional demand from the prosecution was for the Luther Foundation to remove the text of Räsänen's pamphlet from the internet and for the Finnish public broadcasting company Yle to remove certain passages from the radio interview.Päivi Räsänen trial: Prosecutor demands fines, defense sees factual errors in the prosecution by Uusi Tie and Matti Korhonen, Evangelical Focus Europe, 25 January 2022