Sampo Terho


Sampo Terho is a Finnish politician who served as Minister for European Affairs, Culture and Sports. He is the chairman of Suomalaisuuden Liitto and was earlier a Member of the European Parliament.
Terho graduated from the University of Tampere in 2003 with a Master's degree in Finnish History, and has worked as a researcher in the Finnish National Defence University. He has written a book on the history of capital punishment. Terho has also served as a peacekeeper in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Terho received the second largest number of votes on the Finns Party electoral list in the 2009 European Parliament election. He succeeded Timo Soini in the European Parliament when Soini was elected to Parliament of Finland in the 2011 election. He was re-elected in the 2014 election.
Terho participated in the 2015 parliamentary election and was elected to the parliament with 10,067 personal votes. His term in the European Parliament ended on 27 April, when Terho officially accepted the seat in the Finnish Parliament. He subsequently became the chairman of the Finns Party's parliamentary group. On 5 May 2017, he started as the Minister for European Affairs, Culture and Sports in Sipilä Cabinet.
In 2017, Terho ran against Jussi Halla-aho for party chairmanship, but ultimately lost the chairmanship election at the party convention on 10 June. On 13 June, Terho and 19 others left the Finns Party parliamentary group to found the New Alternative parliamentary group which was turned into a new party known as Blue Reform. After the split, the New Alternative group took the Finns Party's place in the cabinet and Terho continued as a Minister.
In 2019 parliamentary election, Terho was a candidate of the Blue Reform in Uusimaa constituency, but was not elected.
Terho wrote a chamber music piece, of around five minutes long, to celebrate Finland's 100 years of independence, for the Kuopio city orchestra. The piece is arranged by Terho with conductor Heikki Elo, who together have orchestrated the piece.

Electoral history

European Parliament elections

YearConstituencyVotesPercentageResult
2009Finland9,3740.56%Substitute
2014Finland33,8331.96%Elected

Parliamentary elections

YearConstituencyVotesPercentageResult
2015Helsinki10,0672.80%Elected
2019Uusimaa3,1180.57%Not elected

Municipal elections

YearMunicipalityVotesPercentageResult
2017Helsinki3,3811.04%Elected