Centre Party chair Annika Saarikko announced on Thursday that she will not seek another term as leader at the next party conference in June.
She has led the party for nearly four years, serving as finance minister in the centre-left government led by ex-PM Sanna Marin (SDP). After the party's poor showing in last spring's parliamentary elections, she said that the Centre would join the opposition, where it is the second-largest party after the SDP.
"My responsibilities in the party leadership started almost 14 years ago, when I was elected as deputy chair at the Lahti party meeting in 2010," recalled Saarikko.
Saarikko, 40, said that she is expecting her third child, but that the pregnancy was not the deciding factor regarding the leadership election.
"If everything goes well, our family will have a third child in mid-July," she said.
"The work of reforming the party and preparing for the municipal and regional elections, which are a year away, is underway," she told reporters.
A day earlier, her predecessor as party chair and finance minister, Katri Kulmuni, announced that she is running as a Centre candidate in the European Parliamentary elections in June.
That election is on 9 June, followed by the Centre Party conference, which begins on 14 June in Jyväskylä.
Also on Thursday morning, another former finance minister, Jutta Urpilainen (SDP), announced that she would not run for a seat in the European Parliament.
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