- Former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb becomes the new President of Finland.
- Stubb narrowly defeated his opponent Pekka Haavisto in a runoff election for the presidency.
- After all votes have been counted, Stubb has 51.6 percent of the vote, Haavisto 48.4 percent.
Haavisto had already congratulated Stubb on his victory when the outcome of the election was announced in a reliable projection by the radio station Yle that evening. Stubb said it was the greatest honor of his life. The office of president is a task that is bigger than one person. He feels calm, humble and infinitely happy and grateful. The voter turnout was 70.7 percent.
Legend:
He is the new president of Finland: the former head of government Alexander Stubb.
Reuters/LEHTIKUVA
Green MP Haavisto, who was foreign minister under former Prime Minister Sanna Marin, will come second in a presidential election for the third time in a row. In the two previous elections he had already had to give way to a politician from the conservative National Coalition Party – Sauli Niinistö, who is still in office today.
Nevertheless, the narrow election result is a success for him: he has never received so many votes before, in the end only 100,000 separated him from Stubb. Polls had predicted Stubb would have a clearer lead before election day. Stubb belongs to the same party as Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who replaced him as party leader in 2016.
Stubb was formerly minister president
Stubb was Prime Minister of Finland himself from mid-2014 to mid-2015 and held various ministerial posts before and after. Most recently he was a professor at the European University Institute in Florence. Since he is considered pro-European and a strong supporter of Ukraine, the election is not expected to have any major impact on Finland’s Russia policy.
In the first round of elections in the EU and NATO country that borders Russia, the conservative Stubb and the Green politician Haavisto received the most votes out of nine candidates two weeks ago. In doing so, they eliminated other heavyweights in Finnish politics such as the right-wing populist parliament speaker Jussi Halla-aho and the former EU currency commissioner Olli Rehn.
Stubb received 27.2 percent of the vote, Haavisto 25.8 percent. However, because none of the candidates achieved an absolute majority, there was a runoff between the two strongest candidates.
President has role in foreign and security policy
The new president will succeed the previous head of state Sauli Niinistö and will take office on March 1st. Niinistö was not allowed to run again after two six-year terms. Under the impression of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, he led Finland into NATO after decades of military freedom from alliance – with the active support of Haavisto, who, as then foreign minister under Prime Minister Sanna Marin, signed the Nordic country’s NATO accession document in April 2023.
The president in Finland is directly elected by the people and plays a more active role in politics than in many other European countries. His most important tasks include deciding on foreign and security policy together with the government, appointing members of the government and approving laws. He is also Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Armed Forces. However, he largely stays out of domestic politics.