Hanna Sarkkinen

Personal details

Minister of Social Affairs and Health, 29 June 2021 to present
Master of Arts, Member of Parliament
Left Alliance
Date and place of birth: 18 April 1988, Oulunsalo
Place of residence: Oulu

Political career

Minister of Social Affairs and Health, 29 June 2021 to present 

Left Alliance, Deputy Party Leader 2016–2019
Left Alliance, Party Council, Chair 2013–2016
The Left Youth of Finland, Vice Chair, 2011–2013

Member of Parliament 2015 to present  
Parliamentary committee work in the Social Affairs and Health Committee, the Grand Committee and the Commerce Committee.
Parliament work 

Oulu City Council, Member 2012 to present
Oulu City Executive, Member 2011–2012
Oulu City Council, Deputy Member 2008–2012

Other work experience and societal responsibilities

Educational Consortium OSAO (The Oulu Region Joint Authority for Education), General Assembly Chair, 2017–2021
European Parliamentary Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Executive Committee Member 2017–2019
Oulu Urban Environment Committee, Chair 2013–2015

Organisation Secretary 2008–2011 
Grocery Store Employee (alongside her studies) 2004–2008

Other information

Language skills: Finnish, English, Swedish

Profile

Hanna Sarkkinen is Finland’s Minister of Social Affairs and Health. Sarkkinen is a second-term Member of Parliament from Oulu who was elected to Parliament in 2015. In Parliament, Sarkkinen has served on the Commerce Committee, the Social Affairs and Health Committee and the Grand Committee, which also handles EU affairs. She has been active in local politics in Oulu since 2009. She held senior positions in her party from 2013 to 2019, first as Chair of the Party Council and later as Deputy Chair. 

Hanna Sarkkinen holds a Master of Arts degree. She graduated in 2014 from the University of Oulu, where she majored in history of science and ideas and minored in management, political science, economics and communications. She graduated from Oulun Lyseo Upper Secondary School in 2007. Prior to her election to Parliament, Sarkkinen worked full-time in local and party politics. She also worked for years as a grocery store employee and as secretary of an organisation alongside her studies.

Hanna Sarkkinen’s political thinking is guided by social and economic justice, equality between people and ecological sustainability. Important political priorities for the Minister include poverty reduction and social security reform, reducing unemployment and safeguarding fair working conditions, strengthening mental health and wellbeing, and taking sustainable development into account in all political decision-making.

Sarkkinen was born in 1988, grew up in Oulunsalo and has roots in Northern Finland. Sarkkinen comes from a working-class family and spent her childhood summers working in her grandmother’s barn. Today, she has a home in Oulu and in Helsinki, and her life is divided between the two cities. Her family includes her spouse, their child born in 2019 and their cat, Hyrmä. If she has free time, Sarkkinen enjoys culture, physical activity and spending time at her summer cabin.