Finland’s Alexander Stubb elected as president of Nato’s newest member
- Run-off between former prime minister Alexander Stubb and ex-foreign minister Pekka Haavisto was tight
- Stubb has task of steering Nordic country’s foreign and security policy now that it is a member of Nato
Finland has elected Alexander Stubb as the president of the newest member of the Nato defence bloc after voters had to choose between two seasoned diplomats to keep neighbouring Russia at bay.
Stubb will become the Nordic country’s 13th president March 1, following in the footsteps of Sauli Niinisto as head of state – a role where the central focus has traditionally been to safeguard independence and peace in Finland that’s flanked by a belligerent giant to its east.
He won 51.6 per cent of the vote in a run-off on Sunday against rival Pekka Haavisto. The election was the tightest since 2000, when Tarja Halonen became Finland’s first female president.
The 55-year-old former prime minister represents continuity in foreign and security policy, with a focus on supporting Ukraine and integrating Finland into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which it joined in April.
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The president will, over his six-year term, act as the country’s top diplomat and supreme commander for its defence forces, working in cooperation with the government to manage foreign relations. Domestically, the president’s powers are limited.
“The president’s main job is upholding peace in Finland, and to make sure we never end up at war,” Stubb said.
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Finland applied to join Nato just months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, putting its bid in together with neighbouring Sweden, which is still waiting for accession. Niinisto, the architect behind those applications, was no longer eligible to run.
While the aim was to deter any aggression with collective defences, Finland has increased spending on its military and exceeds Nato’s 2 per cent of gross domestic product threshold.
“I want to see Finland in the core of Nato,” Stubb told reporters. “We are a security provider, not a security consumer. We have no limits to our Nato membership. We have one of the strongest defences in Europe, and we are a security asset in Nato.”
Stubb went into the election as the favourite, having prevailed in the January 28 first round and held onto his lead in the polls during the two weeks of campaigning.
The Swedish-speaking Finn communicates fluently in a number of languages and has published 16 books. He has held all the top ministerial posts in Finland, including the finance and foreign affairs portfolios.
Most recently the director of the Florence School of Transnational Governance at European University Institute in Italy, Stubb has a PhD in international relations.
He is an avid athlete, having completed numerous marathons and triathlons, including the celebrated Ironman World Championships. As a teenager he played ice hockey and golf, which took him to study at Furman University in South Carolina.
When he served as prime minister, Stubb even faced criticism for allegedly prioritising sport over political responsibilities.
Haavisto, the 65-year-old previous foreign minister, ended up with more support than the about 46 per cent polls had given him.
“The main thing is that the elections were run in a good spirit, that Finland gets a good leader and that the people remain united,” Haavisto said.
