Alexander Stubbe said becoming president was “the greatest honor of my life.” (File)
Hellsink I:
Former prime minister, triathlete and Europhile Alexander Stubbe made a triumphant return to politics after a seven-year hiatus on Sunday when he was elected president of Finland.
The former leader of the National Conservative Party’s candidacy was prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
When he announced his candidacy in August, he said: “I can truly say that such considerations were not a reality before the war began.” “When the motherland calls, you go.”
“I believe that one of the most important tasks of the next presidential term will be to work to preserve the rules-based international system,” Stubb said.
Upon winning the election, Stubb said becoming president was “the greatest honor of my life.”
In Sunday’s runoff election, 98% of the votes were counted, with Stubb receiving 51.7% of the vote. His opponent, Pekka Haavisto, conceded.
Stubbu rose to the center of Finnish politics in 2008 when the then-MEP replaced Ilka Kanerva, who was forced to resign over a series of text messages to an erotic dancer, as foreign minister. It was a coincidence that it happened.
After leaving Brussels, Stubbe initially returned to his childhood home in Helsinki, saying he was perhaps the only foreign minister in the world to live with his father.
Mr Stubb then served as Prime Minister from 2014 to 2015.
To the heart of NATO
The president-elect told Finnish media that as a new NATO member, Finland should “stand at the core of NATO and produce security, not consume it.”
Finland ended decades of military non-alignment and applied to join the military alliance following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but Stubb was already a long-time supporter of NATO bids.
Mr Stubb took up triathlons in his 40s and his enthusiasm for the sport carried over into the Foreign Office, where pastries and coffee were replaced by fruit and health drinks.
However, the 55-year-old has put his campaign on hold to focus on his presidential campaign.
During his time as prime minister, he came under fire in the media for wearing shorts at a press conference on the situation in Ukraine in 2014 and for playing the role of a human dartboard at a theme park.
According to Stubb himself, one of his biggest mistakes as prime minister was allowing the construction of a nuclear power plant in collaboration with Russian state-owned company Rosatom.
After his party came second in the 2015 elections, his career stalled and he moved to become finance minister.
He then lost leadership of the party to current Prime Minister Petteri Orupo and left the Finnish parliament in 2017 to become vice president of the European Investment Bank.
Stubbe left politics for academia after losing the European Commission election in 2018, and for the past three years has been the director of the Department of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute and a professor in Florence, Italy.
Mr. Stubb, a father of two, married Suzanne Innes-Stubbe in 1998, now global compliance officer at elevator engineering company Kohn.
With dual Finnish and British citizenship, she will be Finland’s first foreign-born first lady.
Stubb became a sought-after commentator in foreign media after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, stressing that in 2008 he predicted the Russia-Georgia war would be a turning point in foreign policy.
Mr Stubbe has lived in the US, France, UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy and can negotiate in “excellent” Finnish, Swedish, English and French, as well as “excellent” German.
Becoming president means he will return to Finland again.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)