Keijo Liinamaa

Keijo Antero Liinamaa (born April 6, 1929 in Mänttä , † June 28, 1980 in Helsinki ) was a Finnish politician and Prime Minister.

University degree and union official

Liinamaa graduated from law school. He then worked as legal advisor for labor law at the Finnish Trade Union Confederation (SAK). In 1958 he became a union secretary in the western Finnish industrial city of Mänttä . After the introduction of a new nationwide program to arbitrate labor disputes in the early 1960s, he was appointed Regional Labor Arbitrator and in 1965 National Labor Arbitrator. During the economic crisis from 1965 to 1967, Liinamaa faced a few dozen labor disputes. However, in his role as National Arbitrator, he managed to avoid several general strikes .

In 1967 he was given a special order by the then Prime Minister Rafael Paasio . Liinamaa was supposed to reach an extensive agreement between employers and trade union federations to avoid rising inflation due to rising wages and salaries. These negotiations led to the signing of the first full income policy agreement and popularized it nationwide.

Minister and Prime Minister

After the parliamentary elections of 1970, no government was initially formed because of the large number of parties represented in the Reichstag . For this reason, President Urho Kekkonen instructed Teuvo Aura on May 14, 1970 to form a transitional government. In this cabinet, which only held office until June 15, 1970, Liinamaa was Minister of Justice.

After Ahti Karjalainen's successor government resigned, President Kekkonen called early elections . On October 29, 1971, Aura was charged for the second time with the formation of a transitional government, in which Liinamaa was Minister of Labor until February 23, 1972.

After the parliamentary elections of 1975, none of the parties succeeded in forming a coalition government. President Kekkonen therefore commissioned Liinamaa on June 13, 1975 to form a transitional government. After the intervention of the president, Martti Miettunen was able to form a broad-based coalition government on November 30, 1975 and replace him as prime minister.

For his services to Finnish politics, he was awarded the order “Grand Cross of the White Rose of Finland” ( Memento from December 25, 2003 in the Internet Archive ).

Biographical sources and background information

• Biography on the website of the Finnish government
• Temmes, Markku / Melkas, Helinä: Labor Administration in Finland