Left Alliance | “I thought about it very seriously” – Minja Koskela is considering running for chairman

The Left Alliance a member of parliament from Helsinki Minja Koskela is considering his party’s presidential candidacy.

“Of course I thought about it very seriously. It’s a position I’m interested in, but I’m not saying yet if I’m available.”

Koskela estimates that he will announce his decision in the next few weeks. The new chairman will be elected in the fall.

Speculation after yesterday’s election result, the next chairman of the left-wing union got the rounds. The Left Alliance took a historic election victory: it won 17.3 percent of the votes and got three seats in the parliament.

The sitting chairman Li Andersson took nearly 250,000 votes with him to the parliament MPs Merja Kyllönen and Jussi Saramon. This partially renewed the chairmanship speculations, as Saramo had been promoted as one of the candidate candidates.

Koskela’s name has also come up clearly since Andersson said in the spring that he would leave the chairmanship. Koskela says that since then there have been requests to participate in the competition.

“I haven’t counted them, but they have come, both from inside and outside the party. But all of us MPs certainly have our own people who have asked us.”

At least MPs Hanna Sarkkinen and Veronika Honkasalo have said that they are considering running for chairmanship.

The Left Alliance the shocking election victory has recently spawned analyzes that Andersson’s personal popularity also got supporters of other parties behind the left alliance in these elections. The European elections are exceptional in that there are no constituencies, so anyone could vote for Andersson.

Now Andersson is going to Brussels, and he will no longer sit in the television exams for the next election.

Are you afraid of what the loss of an exceptionally bright chairman means for the party?

Politics has become more personal, says Koskela.

“After all, it has become more prominent. Li’s number of votes indicates his personal popularity, but on the other hand, that popularity is based on his expertise, on the fact that he can explain difficult things comprehensibly. That means that the left-wing message is persuasive.”

“And it’s also hard for me to think that this situation, in which the Left Alliance has become the second largest party in the elections, would be particularly scary.”

Koskela is a music teacher by background, and he is also a doctor of music. Koskela has made politics particularly visible on social media platforms, Instagram and Tiktok.

He is a member of parliament for the first term. Previously, Koskela has worked in the party as a political expert.

However, he does not have the typical long history of youth and student organizations for a politician. According to Koskela, it was during Andersson’s term that efforts were made in the left-wing union to ensure that people other than those who were born from youth organizations would join the party’s activities.

“I am one of them.”