Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo led tributes after a member of his national parliament was found dead on Tuesday morning.
Eemeli Peltonen, a 30-year-old Member of Parliament (MP) for Finland’s Social Democrats (centre-left, pro-EU, SDP) is said to have committed suicide at the nation’s Parliamentary building in Helsinki.
A major police response including an armoured descended on the protected building in response to a call for emergency services received at 11:06 Helsinki time (08:06 London, 03:06 New York) before the situation, and that there was apparently no criminal involvement, became clear.
Despite being just 30-years-old, Peltonen had long experience on the political front line in Finland. He had been elected to positions in local government for his leftist SDP party as a teenager before rising through the ranks, including a spell as an editor of his party’s newspaper and chairing a city council, before becoming a Member of Parliament in the 2023 general election.
The Finnish Parliament officially announced the death of Peltonen on Tuesday afternoon, reports the state owned Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle, saying doing so broke their usual policy of never reporting on suicides. They state the director of parliamentary security said he would not deny that it was a suicide when asked.
Per Yle, Peltonen had been on sick leave for much of this year due to kidney disease. The Finnish Parliament itself is also on summer recess, so Peltonen’s elected colleagues would not necessarily have been in the building.
Indeed, the present Finnish government, a Liberal-Conservative-Populist right-wing coalition is presently on a Summer policy retreat meeting, from which the Prime Minister Orpo and government colleagues heard of the death from journalists.
The Prime Minister expressed his sympathy for the family of the deceased lawmaker, and said: “Some time ago we received truly shocking news from Parliament, our common workplace. That one of our colleagues has passed away on Parliament premises. This is truly sad news… we wish strength to his family, loved ones and colleagues. This deeply touches all of us.”
Orpo said the government retreat would suspect political discussions for the rest of the day out of respect.
This story is developing, more follows
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