Yle's exam | This is how the candidates fared

The presidential election the actual election day of the second round is on Sunday. On Thursday, the candidates Pekka Haavisto (green) and Alexander Stubb (kok) faced off in the second round in the last big election exam at Yle.

Yle published on Thursday polling, whose numbers are exactly the same as in the HS gallup on Monday: Stubb leads the popularity of Haavisto with 54 percent against 46 percent.

As in the HS-gallup, Haavisto has also managed to improve in Yle's survey compared to the previous one. At the end of January, in Yle's survey, 59 percent said they would vote for Stubb and 41 percent for Haavisto, if the candidates met in the second round of the presidential election.

46.3 percent of eligible voters voted in advance, and the candidates still have Friday and Saturday to try to influence their votes on the actual election day.

Helsingin Sanomat's political editors Robert Sundman and Teija Sutinen analyze the candidates' success in Yle's hour-long exam.

The exam was a kind of best-of hit collection from previous exams – the candidates already know each other's previous strengths and weak points inside out, and many of them came to the fore this time as well.

Alexander Stubb

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Familiar qualification

Teija Sutinen: Stubb is running so fast to become president that he didn't bother to “challenge” his opponent anymore, but instead asked what kind of dinner to go to the NATO summit in Washington next summer. Stubb made it sound like he was already asking for advice on an upcoming mission.

Managed the candidates' quite expert wording about the situation in the Middle East. Two male explainers in their element. Both candidates know how to go into details, but Stubb does it even more enjoyably than Haavisto when dropping place names and numbers. The orientation is of the highest level and is not taken lightly.

Sometimes it feels like there is more of a rush to qualify than even a moment to consider the answers.

Among Stubb's troops it had been found that refusal Vladimir Putin there was a successful bet on a possible congratulatory call, so this card was used again. The candidate frankly estimates that answering the call like Haavisto would play into Russian propaganda's bag and make the person answering look like a “Russian poodle”.

Eastern Finland has received plenty of attention in the presidential exams, and this time as well. Stubb spoke fluently but vaguely while painting a picture of investing in infrared and a green and clean transition. Beautiful words without substance.

Robert Sundman: The Gallup number one wanted to turn the debate moments into nice podcast conversations, where two foreign policy experts would rather analyze the world situation together. “Just like that, and…”

A few times he got nervous about the receipts he received and told Haavisto that he seems to be “a little” interested in digging up the past.

In the issue of nuclear weapons, which became the main theme of the election week, he wanted to underline that he actually pretty much agrees with Haavisto and that in the end the parliament will decide whether to change the Nuclear Energy Act or not. “The President of the Republic is adapting.”

He longed for the United States to push Israel harder towards a cease-fire and found common ground with Haavisto on how to criticize the superpower. The “value-based realism” heard in several exams was remembered to be mentioned when talking about China: climate change cannot be fought without China, but the risk must be reduced.

“China will never become a liberal democracy,” was the blunt assessment.

Muisti reminds again that he would not answer Putin's phone call because he does not want Finland to be a “poodle”. Although hoping for the votes of basic Finns, said “no way” for the Rwandan model supported by the party in seeking asylum.

Pekka Haavisto

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Spikes and spikes

Robert Sundman: Alexander, I won't dig up the past, but…

Gallup challenger Haavisto repeated his standard receipt heard several times in the last televised debate of the presidential election. The exam started with a challenge about nuclear weapons that was also seen in MTV and HS exams. Haavisto put the Niinistö card on the table and assured that Finland does not need to change its policy.

No matter what the question was, Stubbs found the right click. When asked about whether Finland should tease the United States, Haavisto began to recall the first round of exams and Stubb's flying throw from Finland as a top 10 ally of the United States.

When asked about the China policy, it was dug up Stubb's Old Writing, which stated “welcome China, farewell USA”. When asked about Russia, it was reminded that Stubb accused those who opposed the Hanhikivi nuclear power plant project of Russophobia. It was also remembered to mention that Stubb proposed a visa exemption for Russian citizens, even though anyone can easily get a passport in the eastern neighbor.

Didn't want to place China in the axis of evil, but still thought it was important to map the risks and be careful. The United States would be criticized for human rights policies, such as the use of the death penalty. He emphasized that Finland is not “only NATO-Finland”, because such a thing might arouse resentment in some countries of the world.

At the beginning, he remembered to mention that he had received “a lot of messages from the provinces” and wanted to talk to the Finns who were voting for their choice of provinces – again.

Teija Sutinen: Went to challenge Stubb again about nuclear weapons. Couldn't you have come up with something fresher? It already sounded a little desperate like milking Finnish nuclear bomb fears. But as Stubb indirectly comforted, Haavisto might continue as a member of parliament and thus be in the decision-making place in the nuclear energy law, which the president has to follow.

At the beginning of the exam, Haavisto distanced himself and addressed the rival candidate formally as “Alexander”, but did not stay in this way of speaking, but started using “Alex” again.

The Haavisto camp had clearly thought about where Stubbilla had so-called flaunted in previous exams, and now they attacked them. Along the way, Haavisto made subtle jabs at, among other things, Stubb's use of the term NATO-Finland, his old columns containing China-enthusiasm, Finland's position among the ten most important allies of the United States, and so on.

“I know that peace is being thought about behind the scenes,” Haavisto said of Ukraine – thus trying to convey that he knows the situation more deeply and that there are still contacts to the world.