Finland's first female President, the 63yr old Tarja Kaarina Halonen was first inaugurated in 2000 and re-elected on January 29, 2006. Early in her political career Ms. Halonen represented the radical left wing of her former party (social-democrat). Regarded as a hero, President Halonen, with a masters of law has been mentioned several times as a possible future United Nations Secretary-General. Her lifestyle has caused some consternation, but her independent attitude has also brought her admiration. Halonen married her longtime partner in a civil ceremony at her official residence after a relationship of more than fifteen years. In the 1960s, she quit the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, to which the majority of Finns belong, to protest against its policy of taxing church members, and its stance against female priests.  President Halonen is widely celebrated by Finns as a woman who has risen from modest circumstances with only her own competence to guide her to become the leader of their nation.