Nils Torvalds
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Swedo-Finnish Torvalds is the son of the poet Ole Torvalds, and the father of the software engineer Linus Torvalds, known for the Linux kernel.<ref>Torvalds, 2001</ref>
Education and experience
Torvalds was a member of the Communist Party of Finland from 1969 to 1982. He studied economics in Moscow and was the editor of the taistoist magazine Arbetartidningen Enhet. Torvalds has later described his communism as a "rebellion".<ref name="kauppalehti">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Between 1995 and 2004 Torvalds worked as a foreign correspondent for the Finnish Broadcasting Company in Moscow and Washington.<ref name="yle2018">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Torvalds is fluent in Swedish, Finnish, English, German, and Russian. And he also understands Flemish, Danish and Norwegian.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Political career
Career in national politics
In 2006, Torvalds joined the Swedish People's Party,<ref name="yle2018" /> and the following year he was elected to the post of the third vice chairperson.<ref>Sfp valde orförande och viceordförande, energipolitiska ställningstagandet remitterades Template:Webarchive (SFP 10.06.2007)</ref> This upset some party voters due to Torvalds' past.<ref name="yle2018" /> In 2008, he was elected to Helsinki City Council for term 2009–2012.<ref name="hel">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On 11 June 2017 the Swedish People's Party chose Torvalds as the party candidate for the 2018 presidential election.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Some of his campaign themes were education, technology and the environment. Torvalds was the only candidate who openly supported Finland's NATO membership during his campaign.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the election, Torvalds placed last with 1.5 percent of the votes, while the incumbent president Sauli Niinistö went on to secure his second term.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Member of the European Parliament
Torvalds was a candidate for European Parliament election in 2009 on the Swedish People's Party list. He received 14,044 votes which was insufficient for a seat.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, on 5 July 2012, he was installed in the European Parliament, when Carl Haglund left his seat to join the Katainen Cabinet as Minister of Defence. In the 2014 European Parliament election Torvalds received about 29,000 votes and was elected.<ref name="kauppalehti" />
As a MEP<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> his positions have included vice-chair of the Fisheries committee (PECH) and member of the committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). Since 2021, he has been part of the Parliament's delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe.<ref>Members of the delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe European Parliament.</ref>
Torvalds has served as shadow rapporteur on the circular economy<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and on the biofuels directive<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (which became directive 2015/1513<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>) and as rapporteur of the annual report 2018 on the European banking union.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Torvalds opposed the Copyright Directive (2019) since it was first proposed, considering it unbalanced especially because of its article 13 (i.e. 17).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In addition to his committee assignments, Torvalds is part of the MEPs Against Cancer group<ref>MAC MEPs in the 2019-24 legislature MEPs Against Cancer.</ref> and the European Parliament Intergroup on Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages.<ref>Intergroup on Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages European Parliament.</ref>
Following the 2019 elections, Torvalds was part of a cross-party working group in charge of drafting the European Parliament's five-year work program on economic and fiscal policies as well as trade.<ref>Florian Eder (13 June 2019), POLITICO Brussels Playbook, presented by Google: Madrid's moment — Parliament working groups sneak peak[sic — Happy birthday, GDPR] Politico Europe.</ref>
In June 2023, Torvalds was the recipient of the Environment and Climate Action Award at The Parliament Magazine's annual MEP Awards<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Linux kernel statement
Nils' son Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, joked during a LinuxCon keynote on 18 September 2013 that the National Security Agency, the creators of SELinux, wanted a backdoor in the kernel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, later, Linus's father revealed that the NSA had actually asked for the installation of backdoors in Linux.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Quote
Other activities
- Reimagine Europa, Member of the Advisory Board<ref>Advisory Board Reimagine Europa.</ref>
Honors
- File:FIN Order of the Lion of Finland 4Class BAR.svg Order of the Lion of Finland (Finland, 2021)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Works
References
External links
Template:Current EP Finland Template:EP Political Group Renew Template:Members of the European Parliament for Finland (2009–2014) Template:Portal bar Template:Authority control
- Pages with broken file links
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- 1945 births
- Living people
- Candidates for President of Finland
- Finnish communists
- Finnish foreign correspondents
- MEPs for Finland 2009–2014
- MEPs for Finland 2014–2019
- MEPs for Finland 2019–2024
- People from Raseborg
- Swedish People's Party of Finland politicians
- Swedish-speaking Finns
- Torvalds family