Column | When it comes to gardening, timing is crucial, and Mika Aaltola has experienced this the hard way

Vbeing a candidate for the president of the alicija association Mika Aaltolan support has collapsed. In the latest December in the HS gallup Aaltola finished seventh among nine candidates. The support was only four percent.

So it has come down – and quickly.

After all, Aaltola was a good year ago, in October 2022, in Ilta-Sanomen the survey number one.

“Oh my god, what results”, commented the research director of Taloustuktuikma at the time Juho Rahkonen.

At that time, as many as 44 percent of the respondents said that they could imagine voting for Aaltola. Pekka Haavisto (green) was second with 43 percent.

In mid-August, HS published a survey in which 33 percent of respondents assessed Aaltola as a good choice for president. In that poll, Aaltola was third in Haaviston and the coalition by Alexander Stubb after.

In the aforementioned surveys, the respondent was allowed to name several options, so they are not comparable with the actual surveys published in recent months. You can only choose one candidate in them.

After registering as a candidate, Aaltola has not fared as well. In October in the HS gallup Aaltola was fifth with eight percent support. And in December so half of it had melted away.

Mika Aaltola's collapse in support is exceptionally steep, but not entirely unusual. For example, in the 2000 presidential election Riitta Uosukainen was still one of the early favorites in the summer. During the autumn before the elections, however, his support dwindled.

It is estimated that Uosukainen's lack of support was due to his statements regarding the return of Karelia and his failures in television exams.

Mika Aalto has also made mistakes.

For example, at the opening ceremony of his campaign, Aaltola estimates that he stands out from other candidates in that he promotes the interests of Finland.

It sounded like he didn't think the other candidates were running it.

“If there is knowledge and there is skill and there is courage, and it seems that others do not have that, that vision – then it is a bit like an obligation to leave”, Aaltola stated in an interview with Yle.

This was a mistake. Finns don't like a politician's self-praise. In Finnish political rhetoric, the candidate must present an emphasis on humility.

Still, it's hard to imagine that Aaltola's smug comments alone would explain the collapse in support. The fact that Aaltola's campaign has very little money has probably had an effect. It does not receive money from parties, unlike the campaigns of other candidates.

Still, the reasons may also lie somewhere deeper.

AAmerican classic film Welcome, Mr. Chance! is about a gardener named Chance, who has spent his whole life at his master's house tending to his plants. He has gained all his understanding of the world by tending to the garden and watching television.

When the host dies, Chance is forced to leave the house.

By chance, he ends up living in the home of a rich businessman and a background influencer in politics. According to the background influencer, Chance's political views are very wise.

However, it is a mutual misunderstanding.

When a behind-the-scenes influencer asks for advice on policy-making, Chance answers by telling him tricks about gardening.

The background influencer assumes that Chance is talking about politics using gardening metaphors, even though Chance is only talking about himself, i.e. only about gardening.

In any case, the background influencer interprets Chance's metaphorical answers as a solution to the political problems of the time. So Chance ends up as an advisor to the President of the United States.

“Do you think we can stimulate growth with temporary incentives,” the president asks Chance.

“As long as the roots are not damaged, everything is fine,” Chance replies.

The president thinks Chance's views are philosophically profound and fresh.

In the end, Chance is being pushed to become the next president of the United States.

En claim that Mika Aaltola would be Mr. Chance – everything else. Aaltola is not a gardener, but a doctor, director of the Foreign Policy Institute (Upi) and one of Finland's best foreign and security policy experts.

However, what Aaltola and Chance have in common is that both have a command of speech, which at the right moment can sound fresh and profound.

Aaltola became a national superstar right after the big Russian attack in February 2022. Aaltola was actually on duty at Yle's A-studio and night after night told Finns her views on the geopolitical turmoil.

He managed to break away from the traditional expert role based on dry facts, and was not afraid of showing emotions and pathos.

In the A-studio, he didn't sound like the leader of Up, but the soul nurse of the nation.

In February 2022, Aaltola managed to calm Finns' fears – which was a great achievement.

For some reason, however, Aaltola left the record on. He didn't really know how to return to his old expert role. Aaltola continued to care for t
he soul of the nation, even if it was no longer needed as before. Aaltola's grandiose speeches no longer sounded fresh, but mostly just grandiose.

That's why it was certainly natural that Aaltola became a presidential candidate.

Showever, e has not gone very well. Aaltola doesn't seem to know what kind of candidate she would like to be.

As a candidate, Aaltola tries to be an expert who tirelessly repeats the word strategy. He is trying to be an outsider of politics who is clean of corruption and who speaks from the tails of finnishing. And he tries to be the Toppelian voice of the nation that tells from kaskinauri about Finns with cancer and theirs from his furrowed hands.

Aaltola has not found his own voice as a politician.

That in itself is understandable, because he obviously doesn't think of himself as a politician. However, voters most obviously value political experience in these elections.

There are moments when talking about gardening sounds deeply philosophical and fresh. And then sometimes it just sounds like gardening – which is also important in its own way.