| Paavo Arhinmäki | |
| Office: | Minister of Culture and Sport |
| Primeminister: | Jyrki Katainen |
| Predecessor: | Stefan Wallin |
| Successor: | Pia Viitanen |
| Office2: | Member of the Finnish Parliament |
| Term Start2: | 21 March 2007 |
| Term End2: | 2021 |
| Constituency2: | Helsinki |
| Birth Date: | 13 December 1976 |
| Birth Place: | Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland |
| Party: | Left Alliance |
Paavo Erkki Arhinmäki (born 13 December 1976, in Helsinki) is a Finnish politician and Helsinki Deputy Mayor for Culture and Leisure since 2021. He was a member of the Finnish Parliament from 2007 til 2021 representing the Left Alliance, a party whose leader he was from 2009 until 2016.
Arhinmäki grew up in Pasila, Helsinki.[1]
He was first elected to the Finnish Parliament in the 2007 election and re-elected in 2011. Arhinmäki has been a member of the City Council of Helsinki since 2001. He led the Left Youth in 2001–2005. He proposed a halt to nuclear power projects in Finland in the wake of the Great Hanshin earthquake.
After the 2011 election, the Left Alliance became a partner in the six-party grand coalition cabinet led by Jyrki Katainen. Being a football enthusiast, Arhinmäki became Minister for Culture and Sport and the party gained another ministerial portfolio as well. The decision to join the government created a split in the party, leading to the expulsion of two MPs from the parliamentary group. Later Arhinmäki became the subject of media criticism after a drinking binge at the Sochi Winter Olympics in February 2014.[2] In 2014 Left Alliance left the cabinet over a dispute on a package of spending cuts and tax rises.[3]
In 2012 Arhinmäki was a Left Alliance candidate in the Finnish Presidential Elections, finishing 6th with 5.5% of the total votes in the first round of voting.
In April 2016, Arhinmäki announced that he wouldn't seek another term as the party leader.[4] On 11 June 2016, he was followed by Li Andersson.[5]
In 2023, Arhinmäki, now the deputy mayor of Helsinki, was caught with another person painting graffiti that included the words "world domination and great career moves" in English on the walls of a train underpass in eastern Helsinki on Midsummer Eve. He subsequently apologized and was fined 2,520 euros by a court in January 2024.[6]