Pirkanmaa Left Alliance Raises Parliamentary Slate to 19 with Three New Nominees

Pirkanmaa's Left Alliance has added three candidates to its parliamentary election list, nominating Aki Leppänen, Minna Minkkinen and Elo Vanhanen for next spring's parliamentary elections, raising the regional roster to 19, Tamperelainen reports.

Aki Leppänen, 41, is a Ylöjärvi city councillor and the full-time chief union representative for the Pirkanmaa welfare area. He leads the Left Alliance council group in Ylöjärvi and sits on the town's audit committee. Minna Minkkinen, 42, is vice chair of Tampere City Council and a social worker. She has served two terms as the party's vice chair, holds seats on the board of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities and on a regional executive board, and was elected an alternate member of parliament in 2023. Elo Vanhanen, 31, is chair of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation and a master's student in international politics at Tampere University, specialising in forest and energy policy. She has past experience as a youth nature delegate.

The party had already named several candidates, including Toni Ilmaniemi, Katja Kotalampi and Teresa Kvick, and will keep adding names until its list is full. Pirkanmaa's only current Left Alliance member of parliament, Anna Kontula, has said she will not stand for re-election. That leaves the party without an incumbent MP from the region. With these three additions the list now stands at 19, following the party's August additions of five candidates that brought the slate to 16.