Timo Laaninen was the party secretary of the Centre Party in Finland since 12 June 2010 up to 2016. Laaninen was the editor-in-chief of Suomenmaa party newspaper from January 2008 up to 2010. Before that he has been a political secretary in Esko Aho's cabinet to the minister of internal affairs, Mauri Pekkarinen, minister for foreign affairsHeikki Haavisto and prime ministerEsko Aho. In Anneli Jäätteenmäki's cabinet he was a political secretary for prime minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki and later also for Matti Vanhanen in Matti Vanhanen's cabinet. Laaninen supported Matti Vanhanen's presidential campaign by writing an electoral campaign book Se on ihan Matti!, which was published 23 October 2005. During the juridical process Antti-Pekka Pietilä claimed, that Timo Laaninen had said, that the political secretaries of the Centre Party in Finland will take care of the fact that the editor-in-chief of Ilta-Sanomat, a Sanoma company will have to resign. Timo Laaninen denied this on his behalf on 4 December 2006. Laaninen had said, that there is a half-criminal part in the Centre Party in Finland, which "collects money from here and there and manipulates the construction permission plans". Laaninen described the elections in 2011 as historical, as there are big issues to solve. Väestö ikääntyy, työssäkäyvien määrä suhteessa pienenee ja takana on finanssikriisi, jonka seurauksena valtiot ovat velkaantuneet aika pahasti. Kyllä tässä on isot asiat käsillä. On Mayday 2011 Laaninen delivered a Mayday political speech near Kyösti Kallio's statue criticizing Teuvo Hakkarainen. He joined the critics and said in typical Mayday political speech near Kyösti Kallio's statue in Helsinki, that Neekeriukko was the worst insult. He also added, that he wonders, how is it possible, that Hakkarainen can apologise his sayings by claiming, that he comes from countryside. "Pahempaa loukkausta maalaisille ja maalla syntyneille on vaikea keksiä". He also commented Hakkarainen's statements, that they are an "all time low" comment in the immigration debate. Laaninen has become a baccalaureat in 1973 and master of science in administrative sciences in 1983. Later Laaninen studied theology in university and received his Master's degree of theology 2018. In the same year he begun a two-year work as a priest in the congregation of Malmi, Helsinki.
