Government > Leaders Stats: compare key data on Estonia & Finland

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STAT	Estonia	Finland	HISTORY
Head of state > Term limit for head of state	5 Ranked 93th.	6 Ranked 25th. 20% more than Estonia
President	Toomas Hendrik Ilves	Sauli Niinisto
President > Profile	<p>Mr Ilves was first sworn in as president in October 2006.</p> <p>As head of state, the president is supreme commander of the armed forces and represents Estonia abroad. However, the role is mainly ceremonial.</p> <p>The president is elected to a five-year term by MPs and local officials. Mr Ilves was re-elected for a second five-year term in August 2011.</p> <p>Born in 1953, Mr Ilves is a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party.</p>	<p>Sauli Niinisto won the presidential election of February 2012 to become the country&#039;s first conservative head of state in five decades.</p> <p>He is the first president from the conservative National Coalition Party since 1956, and the first in 30 years from a party other than the Social Democrats.</p> <p>The victory of the pro-Europe politician suggested to observers that voters wanted to keep the country in the eurozone despite misgivings over European Union bailouts.</p> <p>Mr Niinisto is credited with leading Finland&#039;s economy towards growth following the collapse of the Soviet Union, during his tenure as finance minister from 1996 to 2001.</p> <p>Finland&#039;s president has a largely ceremonial role with fewer powers now than in previous decades, and is not directly involved in daily politics. However, the head of state is seen as an important shaper of public opinion, takes the lead on non-EU matters of foreign policy and plays a role as a &quot;brand ambassador&quot; of Finland overseas.</p> <p>Mr Niinisto succeeded President Tarja Halonen, who was elected as the country&#039;s first female president in 2000 and re-elected in 2006.</p>
President > Summary	Social Democrat Hendrik Toomas Ilves has occupied the largely cermonial role of president since 2006	President Sauli Niinisto is credited with leading the economy towards growth in the 1990s
Prime minister	Andrus Ansip	Jyrki Katainen
Prime minister > Profile	<p>The centre-right coalition led by Andrus Ansip increased its parliamentary majority in elections held in March 2011. </p><p>Mr Ansip thus bettered his own record of being Estonia&#039;s first sitting prime minister to be re-elected since the country quit the Soviet Union in 1991.</p> <p>He became prime minister in April 2005 and in March 2007 his centre-right Reform Party won parliamentary polls, but with too small a margin to govern alone.</p> <p>It went on to form a coalition with the conservative Pro Patria-Res Publica (IRL) and the Social Democrats.</p> <p>The re-election of the coalition in March 2011 was seen as voters rewarding the government for piloting the country through the economic crisis caused by the credit crunch of 2008, and into recovery.</p> <p>It was also Estonia&#039;s first election since joining the single European currency in January 2011. Mr Ansip had originally aimed for eurozone membership in January 2007 but high inflation led the government to put back the target entry date.</p> <p>Taking office for his third term, Mr Ansip said that improving the quality of people&#039;s lives was a top priority.</p> <p>But by late 2012, his party&#039;s opinion poll ratings fell to a record low as a result of popular anger at the quashing of a money-laundering and party funding case and the subsequent resignation of the justice minister, Kristen Michal. </p> <p>In the run-up to the March 2007 poll Mr Ansip backed legislation that paved the way for the removal of a controversial Red Army memorial in Tallinn. The law, and the subsequent relocation of the statue, sparked fury in Moscow.</p> <p>Andrus Ansip was 48 when he became premier. He entered national politics in 2004 following six years as mayor of Tartu, Estonia&#039;s second city.</p> <p>He is married and has three daughters. </p>	<p>Mr Katainen&#039;s conservative National Coalition Party emerged as the largest single group in parliament in the April 2011 elections.</p><p>He formed a grand coalition in June with six other parties from the left and centre, including the Social Democrats.</p> <p>The new opposition is the populist True Finns party, which refused to join the government in protest at its support for a bailout for Portugal during the debt crisis.</p> <p>Born in 1971, Mr Katainen worked as a teacher before being elected a councillor in 1993. He entered parliament in 1999 and became party leader in 2004.</p> <p>He served as deputy prime minister and finance minister in the previous two Centre-Party-led coalition governments between 2007 and 2011.</p>
Prime minister > Summary	Andrus Ansip is the longest-serving prime minister since independence in 1991	Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen is a former teacher

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