After the first round of the presidential election in Finland, the leader of the conservatives Alexander Stubb is in the lead. Together with number two, the Green Pekka Haavisto, he will go into the runoff election in two weeks.
The decision on Finland’s future head of state will be made in a runoff election between former head of government Alexander Stubb and ex-Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto. In the first round of presidential elections in the Nordic EU and NATO country, all nine candidates were far from receiving an absolute majority after the majority of votes were counted. This means there will likely be a runoff election between the two leading candidates – Stubb and Haavisto – on February 11th.
The leader only gets 27 percent
In an extrapolation by the Finnish radio station Yle after counting almost 83 percent of the votes, the conservative Stubb got 27.3 percent in the evening, the green ex-minister Haavisto 25.8 percent. The two strongest pursuers, the right-wing populist parliamentary speaker Jussi Halla-Aho and former EU currency commissioner Olli Rehn, were well behind with 18.6 and 15.3 percent respectively. A preliminary final result should be known later in the evening.
The vote is looking for a successor to President Sauli Niinistö, who was not allowed to run again after two six-year terms in office. Under his leadership and under the impression of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland decided in 2022 to apply for NATO membership after decades of military non-alignment.
Turning point in Finland
In April 2023, the EU’s northernmost country became the 31st member of the defense alliance. For the Finns, whose country borders Russia for 1,340 kilometers, this represented a major turning point.
In Finland, the president is directly elected by the people for a six-year term. One of its most important tasks is to decide on foreign and security policy together with the government, to appoint the government and to approve laws.
Source: Stern
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