GREENVILLE — A graduate of South Carolina’s Furman University has been selected as Finland’s next president.
Alexander Stubbe, a 1993 College of Liberal Arts graduate, narrowly won the presidential election with 51.6 percent of the vote, outperforming his opponent in the February 11 runoff.
When he takes office on March 1, Mr. Stubb, a former prime minister of Finland, will not only become the first Furman graduate to serve as head of state, but also the first graduate of a major South Carolina university.
“Furman was a game changer for me. Probably the biggest thing in my life,” Stubb said in a 2017 interview with the university. “When I was in high school, I was just like any other young man. I was basically interested in sports, girls, and beer, but not necessarily in that order. Furman simply set me on a path of curiosity and learning. He guided me.”
Stubbe, a native of the Scandinavian country that borders Russia and Sweden, originally came to Furman on a golf scholarship after playing for the Finnish national golf team.
Shortly after arriving in South Carolina in 1989 to study political science under Furman Professor Brent Nelsen, Mr. Stubbe quit golf and turned his attention to politics. This was something he never imagined as a child.
“We always knew Alex was going somewhere,” Nelsen said in a news release. “When he was prime minister, I thought he was at the top and was probably going to be elected commissioner of the European Union.”
After earning a master’s degree and a doctorate from two European universities and working as a diplomatic researcher in various positions across Europe, Mr. Stubbe entered his first public service in 2004 when he was elected to represent Finland in the European Parliament. Ta.
He entered Finland’s national political scene as foreign minister in 2008 and held various positions until his re-election in 2016 amid a political scandal.
Having revived his political career, Mr Stubb’s duties as president over the next six years will focus on overseeing foreign and security policy, representing the country in NATO and serving as commander-in-chief of the Finnish armed forces. .
Nelsen said Finland has a “semi-presidential system with a president with real power and a party-led parliament.”
Nelsen said Stubb’s advantage lies in his decades of experience in foreign policy and the Finnish government. He is also very outgoing and personable, quickly joining social media and gaining many followers by posting about his participation in triathlons. And he is seen as a family man, which Nelsen said is appealing to relatively conservative Finns.
Stubb’s focus will be on managing foreign policy with Russia amid the war in Ukraine. Finland is smaller than the Atlanta metropolitan area, with a population of just over 5 million people, but it shares more than 832 miles of border with Russia.
Finland recently joined NATO, which Mr. Stubb has long supported and criticized Russia and its invasion of Ukraine.
