Sari Miriam Essayah (born 21 February 1967) is a Finnish retired racewalker and a politician, former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and Member of Parliament since 2015. She is the president of the Finnish Christian Democrats party. She has been serving as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry since 2023.
During her sports career, Essayah competed mainly in 5 and 10 kilometres. In the latter, she won the World Championship in 1993 and the European Championship in 1994. She set seven national records, all of which are still standing.
In 2016, Essayah became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and she has been a member of the Ethics Committee of the Finnish Athletics Association since 2014.
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Education
Her father is from Morocco.
Essayah holds an M.Sc (Econ) in business administration and accounting from the University of Vaasa.
Political career
After retiring from sports Essayah entered politics and represented the Christian Democrats in the Finnish parliament between 2003 and 2007 but failed to get reelected in the election of 2007. She served as the Christian Democrats' party secretary from 2007 to 2009. Essayah was elected to the European Parliament in 2009 but failed to be reelected in 2014 despite her 61 000 votes. This left the Finnish Christian Democrats without MEPs in the 2014 election. In November 2011 she undertook godparenthood for Mikola Dziadok, Belarusian activist and political prisoner.