Sari Essayah

Sari Miriam Essayah (born 21 February 1967) is a Finnish retired racewalker and a politician, former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and Member of Parliament since 2015. She is the president of the Finnish Christian Democrats party. She has been serving as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry since 2023.

During her sports career, Essayah competed mainly in 5 and 10 kilometres. In the latter, she won the World Championship in 1993 and the European Championship in 1994. She set seven national records, all of which are still standing.

In 2016, Essayah became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and she has been a member of the Ethics Committee of the Finnish Athletics Association since 2014.

Education Her father is from Morocco.

Essayah holds an M.Sc (Econ) in business administration and accounting from the University of Vaasa.

Political career After retiring from sports Essayah entered politics and represented the Christian Democrats in the Finnish parliament between 2003 and 2007 but failed to get reelected in the election of 2007. She served as the Christian Democrats' party secretary from 2007 to 2009. Essayah was elected to the European Parliament in 2009 but failed to be reelected in 2014 despite her 61 000 votes. This left the Finnish Christian Democrats without MEPs in the 2014 election. In November 2011 she undertook godparenthood for Mikola Dziadok, Belarusian activist and political prisoner.

Essayah was candidate in the 2012 Finnish presidential election. She came last with 2.47 percent of the votes.

In the 2015 parliamentary elections, Essayah was elected to represent a newly formed constituency of Savonia and Karelia with over 11 000 votes. She was later chosen to be the vice speaker of the Christian Democrats' Parliamentary group. In August, she was chosen as the new chair of her party after her predecessor, Päivi Räsänen, retired from the position after over ten years. Sari Essayah was re-elected in Finnish parliament in the 2019 elections and re-elected for a third term as the party chair in a party congress in August.

In June 2023, she was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in the Orpo Cabinet. On 27 August 2023, Essayah was chosen as the presidential candidate of Christian Democrats in the 2024 Finnish presidential election. She received 1.48% of the total votes.

Other activities Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), Member of the Advisory Council (since 2019)

Achievements