Stubb's Supervisors | The second star of the victory party: Petteri Orpo, who piloted the Kokoumosi's continuous success

When the coalition that won the presidential election Alexander Stubb arrived from Helsinki City Hall's election broadcasts back to his election supervisors in Little Finland, a cheering parade of honor was waiting for him.

The cheers of the supporters could be felt not only with enthusiasm but also with relief. Although in the end there were 98,663 votes between the candidates, it was much less than many supporters and campaign team members had expected.

Even before the preliminary votes were announced, many members of the coalition estimated that Stubb's number of votes would be somewhere between 53 and 54 percent. The final number of votes, 51.6 percent, therefore gave cause for a little excitement. Especially when Pekka Haavisto the vote count in urban centers that voted more enthusiastically was slower than the rest of Finland.

Travel it took so long to get on stage to receive congratulations that the audience's applause stopped and started again several times.

The moment Stubb reached the stage, applause filled the room.

For the loudest applause, the one who took the stage after Stubb competed at the most Kaija Koo, whose performance the future president and his family moved to listen to next to the stage. The party atmosphere also caught Stubb's well-known lifestyle from the audience. The departure planned for midnight stretched past one o'clock, when the victory was celebrated after the interview rumba in the back room of Pikku-Finlandia among the close circle.

Stubby in addition, during the evening, the chairman of the coalition, the prime minister, also had reason to celebrate Petteri Orpolla.

During the evening, several MPs from the coalition and background influencers came to praise how Orpo has become the most successful chairman in the history of the coalition.

“Not many would necessarily have believed it in 2016”, one background influencer sums up the mood of many.

It is true that under the leadership of Orpo, who was criticized as a loose chairman at the beginning, the coalition has won all five elections: presidential elections, parliamentary elections, regional elections, municipal elections and European Parliament elections.

Credit seems to be strong that the same pace will continue in this spring's European Parliament elections as well.

An orphan Stubb also said that he thanked in the back room behind the curtains before leaving Little Finland.

“I think
Petteri was the one who, as deputy party secretary, pushed me when I was an EU expert and I was once thinking about participating in the EU elections. We have come a long way together,” Stubb recalled before leaving.

In addition to the orphan, he received public thanks Antti Vesala, which Orpo hugged for a long time at the front doors of Little Finlandia. Vesala is the campaign's program and strategy manager and the association's research manager, who has been held as one of the driving forces of the campaign.

Of the election victory regardless, Stubb doesn't have a day off on Monday. At 12 o'clock we plan to gather for a team meeting and at 2 o'clock there is a press conference ahead.

“Suzanne and I have discussed that it would be good to start the practical training tomorrow. Doesn't that immediately start a rollercoaster”, commented Stubb before going home.

The assembly of the president's cabinet will also begin immediately on Monday, although at least the vast majority of names will probably already be agreed upon. One of the characteristics of a good politician is the ability to be able to surround himself with good assistants who keep up to date and look behind him if necessary.

We were also reminded of that on the night between Sunday and Monday, when Stubb forgot his phone in the back room of Pikku-Finlandia. The phone followed a moment later, and the car was allowed to point its nose towards Espoo's Westend.