Alexander Stubb, the new Finnish president

Heading to Finland today, with several major elections. Details from a Finnish journalist from Helsinki, Helena Petäistö.

Focus on Finland, the Finns went to the polls on January 28 and February 11, to elect the President of the Republic, elections commented with a Finnish journalist from Helsinki, Helena Petäistö.

franceinfo: Helena Petäistö, Alexandre Stubb, the conservative, won the presidential elections in Finland against the environmentalist candidate Pekka Haavisto. He won by 51.6% in the second round. Who is Alexander Stubb?

Helena Petäistö: He is a 55-year-old conservative man, married to an English woman, he comes from the Swedish-speaking minority. He is very Atlanticist. Finally, he is a polyglot who studied in California, at the European College in Bruges and the School of Economics in London, where he obtained his doctorate in international relations.

Finland left its neutral status to join NATO, did this event influence voters?

Yes, very broadly, it was really the leap to Finland’s security in this election. We can well imagine this in our geopolitical situation, with the West’s longest border with Russia, and that is to say 1,300 kilometers. Obviously, that was the major topic.

This is what made Alexandre Stubb win…

He has always been, and for a very long time, someone who spoke about our membership in NATO after decades of neutrality. It was the current president, Sauli Niinistö, who brought us to NATO. But after a somewhat vague hesitation, he still woke up first in Europe, to the change in Putin’s attitude who wanted to keep the buffer country around Russia and prevent them from joining NATO, and he has been for NATO membership since the crisis between Georgia and Russia in 2008.

So now Alexander Stubb wants to bring Finland into the heart of NATO, and he puts no limits on it, not even on the concept of storing nuclear weapons on Finnish soil.

What powers does the president have in Finland?

You know, the Constitution of the Fifth Republic of France was inspired by the old Finnish Constitution, Charles de Gaulle knew this Constitution very well, but since Finland’s accession to the European Union in 1995, Finland has amended its constitution.

The president has less power than before, but he is still responsible for foreign policy, in cooperation with the government, he is also the head of the armed forces, which is very important for Finland.

Finland is made up of 5 million inhabitants, were there any Finns during these elections who were against the loss of neutrality and membership in NATO?

No, it was very clear. After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, almost all parliamentarians were in favor of joining NATO. So there were no more questions, all the candidates were for our membership in NATO.

Alexandre Stubb had opponents during this election, what were the motives of the opposition?

It was especially about his personality, where there were doubts, because, unlike our current president who is very discreet, he still had a somewhat tumultuous career, once he launched into politics .

Then there was a scandal, he had to quickly replace the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time. Maybe he wasn’t quite prepared for this. So there were a few twists and turns at the time, sometimes he was accused of being a little too arrogant. So there, there was this sort of doubt, but that’s pretty much the only thing, because in politics, it’s security, everyone agrees.