{"id":329980,"date":"2024-01-26T16:32:33","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T15:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/01\/26\/finlandia-elezioni-presidente-sfida-due\/"},"modified":"2024-01-31T15:55:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T14:55:31","slug":"finland-prepares-to-elect-new-president-eu-commissioner-urpilainen-seems-out-of-the-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/01\/26\/finland-prepares-to-elect-new-president-eu-commissioner-urpilainen-seems-out-of-the-running\/","title":{"rendered":"Finland prepares to elect new president. EU commissioner Urpilainen seems out of the running"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013\u00a0Everything is ready in Finland for the election of a new
\npresident of the Republic, but indications on the eve of the vote
\nsuggest that a head-to-head between former foreign ministers is
\nalready brewing, with hopes for the Social Democratic candidate
\n\u2014the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta
\nUrpilainen<\/strong>\u2014now down to the lowest of lows. With two days to go
\nbefore the polls open, when Finnish voters will choose the
\nsuccessor to President Sauli Niinist\u00f6<\/strong> (in office since
\n2012), surveys<\/a> confirm that the most likely scenario is a two-way
\nchallenge between Alexander Stubb<\/strong> for the center-right and\u00a0
\nPekka Haavisto<\/strong> for the Greens, with the runoff scheduled
\ntwo weeks later.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
The pre-election confrontation between all nine candidates for the presidency of the Republic of Finland, Jan. 24, 2024 (credits: Markku Ulander\/Lehtikuva\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nine candidates will compete in the ballot on Sunday (Jan. 28) to
\nwin the office of president of the Republic of Finland, which since
\n1994 cannot be renewed after two consecutive terms (each lasting
\nsix years). The president’s main role is to guide the country’s
\nforeign policy in cooperation with the government<\/strong>, representing
\nHelsinki at the NATO tables after the historic accession on April 4, 2023.
\nIn addition, the president of the Republic acts as commander-in-chief
\nof the military, appoints and accepts the resignations of members of
\nthe executive branch, high-ranking civil servants, and Supreme Court
\njudges. Finally, at the motivated request of the prime minister, he can
\norder the dissolution of the Eduskunta<\/em> <\/strong>(Finland’s single-chamber
\nparliament) and call early elections<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Presidential<\/a><\/figure>\n

From left: Green League candidate, Pekka Haavisto, and National Coalition Party candidate, Alexander Stubb (credits: Vesa Moilanen\/Lehtikuva\/Afp)<\/p>\n

Victory in the first round of the presidential election is guaranteed
\nonly by achieving 50.01 per cent of the votes, otherwise, there’s
\na runoff between the two candidates with the most votes<\/strong>.
\nBarring\u00a0any last-minute surprises at the polls, the latter is the most likely
\nprospect in this round, and Stubb and Haavisto are the leading
\ncandidates to go head-to-head on 11 February<\/strong>: the candidate
\nof the centre-right National Coalition Party (head of
\nforeign affairs between 2008 and 2011 and former prime minister
\nbetween 2014 and 2015) seems to lead with 27 per cent of voting
\nintentions, while the Green League candidate and former foreign
\nminister in the government led by Sanna Marin<\/strong> would be trailing
\nby only 4 points.<\/p>\n

\"Jutta<\/a><\/figure>\n

Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, and candidate of the Social Democratic Party of Finland<\/p>\n

More distant are the other seven challengers, starting with the
\ncandidate of the far-right True Finns, Jussi Halla-Aho<\/strong>, in third place
\nwith 18 per cent and the Keskusta liberal-backed independent
\nOlli Rehn <\/strong>(former commissioner from 2004 to 2014)\u00a0fourth with
\n14 per cent. Almost a d\u00e9b\u00e2cle for Finland’s current EU commissioner
\nUrpilainen\u2014since December 2 last year on unpaid leave\u2014who has
\nfailed to turn around the fortunes of the Social Democratic Party
\nafter the defeat in the elections of April 2023 and the formation of the\u00a0
\n<\/a>right-wing coalition currently governing. The social-democratic
\ncandidate is expected to stop at 5 per cent of the
\nvote <\/strong>and would be ready to return to her role on the Board of
\nCommissioners.
\nFinns can vote early (the window was
\nbetween Jan. 17 and Jan. 23) and, according to the Ministry
\nof Justice, about one-third of eligible voters
\nhave already expressed their preference<\/strong> in this manner.
\nSo, the results of the first round are expected to be published
\nquickly, even before midnight on 29 January, since the outcome
\nof ballots delivered before January 23\u00a0will be announced as soon
\nas the polls close. Official confirmation\u00a0from Helsinki will come
\nin any case on Tuesday (Jan. 30).<\/p>\n

\"Finland<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Jan. 28, Finnish voters will be called to the polls to choose Sauli Niinist\u00f6’s (in office since 2012) successor to lead the country. Polls indicate that it will be a challenge between former foreign ministers, Alexander Stubb for the center-right and Pekka Haavisto for the Greens, with an inevitable runoff on Feb. 11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5647,"featured_media":329885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26587,26590,26588,26589,26591,26592],"class_list":["post-329980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-alexanderstubble","tag-finlandia-and","tag-election-finland-2024-en","tag-election-presidential-finland-en","tag-jutta-urpilainen-en","tag-pekka-haavisto-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5647"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329980"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331269,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329980\/revisions\/331269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}