HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's ousted finance minister Alexander Stubb on Wednesday turned down an offer to continue in a different role in the centre-right government.
Stubb was ousted from the leadership of his co-ruling National Coalition Party (NCP) last week amid weak poll support and criticism of his outspoken style.
He told reporters on Wednesday that the newly appointed party leader Petteri Orpo, who is also taking over as finance minister, had asked him to stay in the cabinet as a minister of foreign trade.
But Stubb, who held four different cabinet positions through the last eight years including prime minister, declined the offer, saying he had no plans at the moment apart from continuing as a member of the parliament.
"I've promised my family to be a better father and a husband, and spending 150 days travelling around the world does not help in that," he said.
A polyglot, social media-savvy sportsman, Stubb became one of Finland's most popular politicians after NCP called him up from Brussels where he had held several EU jobs.