Finland chose the determination of Alex Stubb with a vote that reiterated the definitive farewell to the doctrine of neutrality and opened a new phase in European defense structures. The former conservative prime minister, a convinced pro-European and solid Atlanticist, is the new President of the Republic with 51.6% of the votes. His opponent, the Green Pekka Haavisto, former foreign minister, stopped at 48.4%. A minimal difference for a battle fought until the last vote which, however, does not at all convey the photograph of a country split in two, on the contrary. If there is one aspect that characterized these presidential elections, it was the almost total convergence of the two candidates' programs. We voted on shades, not on color. Both Stubb and Haavisto are pro-Europeans, they share a hard line towards Moscow and a “very active participation in NATO”, they support the strengthening of relations with Washington and the continuation of military and financial aid to Ukraine. Positions not only of “representation” given that in Finland the president remains outside of internal political disputes, but directs the country's foreign policy outside the EU, is commander in chief of the armed forces and, more symbolically, embodies the values of the nation.
The 55-year-old Stubb, a triathlete, marathon runner, with a respectable political CV in the National Coalition Party, succeeds President Sauli Niinisto, who is retiring after two six-year terms in which he earned the nickname “Putin whisperer”. for his previous ties to the Russian leader. The vote marks a new era for Finland, which for decades has elected presidents capable of keeping dialogue open and promoting diplomacy with neighboring Russia, and which had chosen not to join military alliances in order to ease tensions between Moscow and Russia. Born. With the choice of Stubb, however, he decided to press the accelerator towards the Alliance and very far from Russia. The Finns chose the candidate who clearly buried (more than Haavisto, who was the main negotiator of Finland's entry into NATO) Helsinki's traditional policy of non-alignment. During the Cold War, Finland, in fact, declared itself a neutral country. In 1948 he had signed a Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance with the Soviet Union, containing a clause according to which none of the signatories would join a coalition directed against the other. But the provocations on the shared border – 1,340 kilometers long – and the invasion of Ukraine have brought an unprecedented turning point to the country which has woken up with a new spirit today embodied by Stubb. “Politically there will be no relations with the president of Russia or with the Russian political leadership until they stop the war in Ukraine”, the new president of the Nordic country has reiterated several times.
Stubb does not exclude the presence of allied troops on national territory nor the possibility of a hypothetical transit of nuclear weapons, convinced that a strong army, the Alliance and the defense pact with the United States create the necessary deterrence in the changed conditions. This “triple block” on Russia has meant that «Finland is in one of the safest positions it has found itself in throughout its history», he said. Voters were convinced by his experience, the workhorse of the electoral campaign, in opposing “Russian aggression” for eight years after the war in Georgia in 2008, as minister and then prime minister. “People must understand that for us foreign and security policy has always been an existential question.”
Finland joined NATO last April, less than a year after applying for membership – a feat achieved while Haavisto was foreign minister and prompted by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moscow had responded with more or less veiled threats and with the usual strategy – already used against Poland and the Baltics – of sending undocumented migrants from the Middle East and Africa across its border, pushing Helsinki to close all its border crossings along the frontier. Other countries in the region, in particular Sweden – hanging on Orban's yes to join NATO – and Estonia, have issued strong warnings about the possibility of a war with Russia, creating favorable conditions for the choice of a president who has made closeness to NATO and its strong position against Russia is its strong point.
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