Politics | KJ Ståhlberg, PE Svinhufvud, Johannes Virolainen, Harri Holkeri, Esko Aho, Timo Soini, Paavo Lipponen, Elisabeth Rehn – What unites them?

About the presidential election only the name of the winner will be remembered. Last Sunday, seven names were added to the list of defeated candidates, and one more will be added in a week.

The list of the lost is long and handsome. It even has two presidents K. J. Ståhlberg and Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, who lost the 1937 election. Ståhlberg sought to return as head of state, and Svinhufvud tried to keep his position as head of state. Neither succeeded.

In the past years, they tried to become president and many times got away with the position of prime minister. This has not been the case for forty years. Prime Ministers or ex-Prime Ministers Johannes Virolainen (center), Harri Holkeri (cook), Esko Aho (center), Matti Vanhanen (center) and Paavo Lipponen (sd) were not selected. Kalevi Sorsa (sd) and Ahti Karjalainen (Centre) did not make it as presidential candidates, even though they were nominated in the party's internal voting.

Even the highest number of votes has not always been enough for the election. Sdp leader Vaino Tanner received the most votes in the 1925, 1931 and 1937 elections. Tanner did not become president, because the choice of the president was finally made by the electors, the majority of whom were burghers.

Tanner ran for the nomination even later, but lost the internal Dem vote by one vote K.-A. to Fagerholmwho in turn lost the presidential election in 1956 by one vote.

The Dems later received a generous refund. Sdp's winning streak began in 1982, which continued in five presidential elections and ended with Paavo Lipponen's defeat in 2012.

The most dramatic the chancellor of justice suffered the loss Olavi Honkawho the coalition and Sdp ran for president in 1962. Honka had to give up his candidacy in the middle of the campaign, because the Soviet Union did not accept him and began to put a lot of pressure on Finland.

It is difficult to become president from outside politics, no matter how high a position you are. The CEO of Kansallis-Osake-Pankki experienced the election defeat Matti Virkkunen (kok) in 1968 and editor-in-chief of HBL, professor Jan-Magnus Jansson (r) in 1982.

The first female candidate was the Deputy Secretary General of the UN Helvi Sipilä in 1982. Sipilä of the Liberals was left behind in the elections, but with his candidacy he broke the glass ceiling that had lasted for more than sixty years.

Director of SMP Veikko Vennamo lost the presidential elections in 1968, 1978 and 1982. However, Vennamo received a lot of publicity and always won in the following parliamentary elections.

Disciple of Vennamo Timo Soini tried the same trick. Soini lost the presidential elections in 2006, made himself known in them and won the parliamentary elections a year later. That was the beginning of the rise of basic Finns into a major party.

Directly The two-phase national election was switched to in 1994. The new election method attracted e.g. MPs police Sulo Aittoniemi and an artist Pertti Veltto Virtanen. They were mercilessly left in the jumbo positions.

Minister of Defense Elisabeth Rehn (r) did surprisingly well as a candidate for a small party and reached the finals, but came second.

Rehn dropped from the continuation Paavo Väyrynen (center), who was running for the second time in 1994. Väyrynen has lost the presidential election four times, and he now holds the Finnish record for defeats. You already knew Väyrynen once in the city center primary election, where he lost to Esko Aho.

Väyrynen tried to participate in these elections as well. However, he did not collect the required 20,000 supporter cards. As usual, Väyrynen blamed others for the setback and blamed the post office, which he suspected had lost some of the supporter cards.

“This year's Finnish presidential election was stolen,” Väyrynen wrote in his blog.

Losing presidential candidates from 1925 to 2024

In the years 1925–1988, the electors were chosen in elections, who chose the president of the republic. In 1994, a direct two-stage national election was switched over. In 1919, the president was elected by the parliament. In 1944, 1946 and 1973, the president of the republic was elected by an exception law enacted by the parliament. The electors elected in 1937 also elected the president in 1940 and 1943.

1925

• Risto Ryti

• Vaino Tanner

• Hugo Suolahti

• Matti Väisänen

• Karl Söderholm

1931

• K. J. Ståhlberg

• Called Kallio

• Vaino Tanner

1937

• PE Svinhufvud

• K. J. Ståhlberg

• Vaino Tanner

Väinö Tanner was a candidate in the elections but was no longer a candidate at the meeting of the electors.

1950

• Mauno Pekkala

• U
  rho Kekkonen

1956

• K.-A. Fagerholm

• Sakari Tuomioja

• Eino Kilpi

• Ralf Törngren

• Eero Rydman

J. K. Paasikivi was not a candidate in the elections, but he participated in the voting of the meeting of the electors in the second round, where he did not make it to the decisive third vote. In the Sdp's internal vote, Väinö Tanner lost to K.-A. to Fagerholm.

1962

• SpongeBob Aitio

• Rafael Paasio

• Emil Skog

Olavi Honka gave up his candidacy in the middle of the election campaign.

1968

• Matti Virkkunen

• Veikko Vennamo

1978

• Raino Westerholm

• Ahti M. Salonen

• Veikko Vennamo

• Eino Haikala

1982

• Harri Holkeri

• Johannes Virolainen

• Kalevi Kivistö

• Jan-Magnus Jansson

• Raino Westerholm

• Veikko Vennamo

• Helvi Sipilä

Ahti Karjalainen lost the vote for the presidential candidacy to Johannes Virolainen at the central party meeting.

1988

• Harri Holkeri

• Paavo Väyrynen

• Kalevi Kivistö

• A bunch of Kayans

In the presidential elections, voting was done with two tickets, one directly for the presidential candidate and the other for the electorate candidate. If one of the presidential candidates had received more than half of the votes cast in a direct election, he would have become president. When this did not happen, the selection was made by the selectors. The election method was used only once.

Erkki Pystynen lost to Harri Holker in the coalition's primary election.

1994

We moved directly to a two-phase national election.

• Elisabeth Rehn (in the 2nd round)

• Raimo Ilaskivi

• Paavo Väyrynen

• Claes Andersson

• Keijo Korhonen

• Eeva Kuuskoski

• Sulo Aittoniemi

• Act Kankaanniemi

• Pertti Veltto Virtanen

• Pekka Tiainen

In Sdp's internal primary election, Kalevi Sorsa lost to Martti Ahtisaari, in the coalition primary election Pertti Salolainen lost to Raimo Ilaskive, and in the city center primary election Hannele Pokka lost to Paavo Väyryne.

2000

• Esko Aho (in the 2nd round)

• Riitta Uosukainen

• Elisabeth Rehn

• Heidi Hautala

• Ilkka Hakalehto

• Risto Kuisma

Paavo Väyrynen lost to Esko Aho in the central primary election.

2006

• Sauli Niinistö (in the 2nd round)

• Matti Vanhanen

• Heidi Hautala

• Timo Soini

• Bjarne Kallis

• Henrik Lax

• Arto Lahti

2012

• Pekka Haavisto (in the 2nd round)

• Paavo Väyrynen

• Timo Soini

• Paavo Lipponen

• Paavo Arhinmäki

• Eva Biaudet

• Sari Essayah

2018

• Pekka Haavisto

• Laura Huhtasaari

• Paavo Väyrynen

• Matti Vanhanen

• Tuula Haatainen

• Merja Kyllönen

• Nils Torvalds

2024

• Jussi Halla-aho

• Olli Rehn

• Lee Andersson

• Jutta Urpilainen

• Sari Essayah

• Mika Aaltola

• Harry Harkimo