Parliament | Pekka Haavisto returned to parliamentary work – considers Stubb's proposal for peace mediation “very premature”

Election of the parliament gone Pekka Haavisto (vihr) returned to parliamentary work today, Tuesday. He attended the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee for the first time.

Alexander Stubb won the presidential election with 51.6 percent of the vote. Haavisto got 48.4 percent of the votes.

“A new life has started, the vacuum cleaner has been used and the house has been cleaned. There was quite an election spurt in between,” he said before going to the meeting.

Haavisto did not want to comment on any guesses about his future, but said he would focus on his parliamentary work.

“I have been elected as a Member of Parliament and I will continue from here. I am grateful to everyone who did a huge campaign job.”

Stubbs said on Monday tin his announcement that he is ready to support Haavisto in peace mediation tasks, if Finns are asked to do so.

“No comments. This is completely premature,” Haavisto said.

He said that he has no plans regarding the European election candidacy. The Greens would need well-known candidates because Heidi Hautala (green) leaves the EU Parliament.

Haavisto said that he did not believe that the news about his sexual orientation had a decisive impact on the election.

“A difference of a hundred thousand votes anyway.”

In some regions, for example Ostrobothnia, Stubb generally received more votes than Haavisto in the municipalities. However, Haavisto says that his campaign traveled well across Ostrobothnia and its coast.

“There were several occasions in Vaasa, we were in Kokkola, we were in Raahe and other areas as well. There was no feeling that something had been left undone.”

Haavisto reminded again that the polls could not predict the tight gap between the two candidates.

In their election supervisor meetings on Sunday night Haavisto said, that the campaign was a heavy and long process. In an interview in the evening, he even hinted at the possibility that these elections would be his last.

“If you are asked today if you ever participate in an election, the first answer is no. Not for a while, maybe not ever,” he said late Sunday night.