Kai Mykkänen


Kai Aslak Mykkänen is a Finnish politician and the former Minister of the Interior. He represents the National Coalition Party in the Uusimaa electoral district.

Early life

Mykkänen was born in Espoo to the journalist and politician Jouni Mykkänen and Maria Mykkänen. He is of Russian descent through his mother, who is a daughter of Russian emigrants.

Political career

Mykkänen was the chairman of the Coalition Party Youth League 2000–2001. He was a member of the City Council of Espoo 2001–2008.
Mykkänen was elected to the Parliament of Finland in the 2015 election with 5,260 votes. He was a member of the Environment Committee and Grand Committee from 2015 until 2016.
On 22 June 2016, Mykkänen was appointed as the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development in the cabinet of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä after Lenita Toivakka's resignation. On 6 February 2018, Mykkänen shifted his portfolio in order to replace Paula Risikko as the Minister of the Interior. In this capacity, he also co-chaired the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers Meeting of the European People's Party, alongside Esteban González Pons.

Other activities

As Minister of the Interior, Mykkänen proposed in 2018 to increase Europe's quota refugee system ten-fold, for the EU to receive 250,000 new asylum seekers per year instead of the current 25,000. When the Oulu child sexual exploitation scandal broke out, Mykkänen called for harsher sentencing and for immigrants and asylum seekers who commit sexual assault to be deported and/or have their citizenship revoked.

Personal life

Mykkänen has two children with his wife Anna.