Silvia Modig

Anna Silvia Modig (born 8 July 1976^[2]) is a Finnish politician; and a former journalist, and radio and TV host. She was a member of the Parliament of Finland 2011–2019, representing the Left Alliance, and was elected to the European Parliament in 2019. Modig is also a member of the Helsinki City Council.

Silvia Modig MEP
Member of the European Parliament
In office 2019 – 15 July 2024
Constituency	Finland
Member of the Finnish Parliament
In office 20 April 2011 – 16 April 2019
Constituency	Helsinki
Personal details
Born	(1976-07-08) 8 July 1976 (age 48) Helsinki, Finland
Political party	Finnish: Left Alliance  EU: GUE-NGL
Spouse	Meri Valkama (2019–2023)[1]
Website	www.silviamodig.fi

Career

Modig belongs to the Swedish-speaking minority of Finland. She was raised in the eastern suburbs of Helsinki. Modig started her television career at the age of 18 working for the Yle Children and Youth. Her latest TV show was YLE Teema's talk show Popkult.

Modig was elected to the Helsinki City Council by 895 votes in the 2008 municipal elections as an independent candidate on the Left Alliance list.^[3] Modig was elected to the parliament in the 2011 elections, and re-elected in the 2015 elections.^[4][5] She was left out of the parliament in the 2019 elections,^[6] but was elected to the European Parliament in the 2019 European Parliament election with 51,608 votes nationwide as the only representative of the Left Alliance.^[7]

Personal life

Modig is openly lesbian and is a vegetarian.^[8][9] She was in a registered partnership with a Finnish artist and writer Rakel Liekki, but they broke up in October 2011.^[10] In June 2019, she married her partner Meri Valkama, who is the Communications Manager and Group Secretary of the Left Alliance Helsinki District.^[11][12] In 2023, Modig competed on Amazing Race Suomi with Aino-Kaisa Pekonen. The two were eliminated in the second episode in Phuket.^[13]