12
votes
Finland's former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb will run as a candidate in the presidential elections – will face the popular former Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto
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- Title
- Finland's former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb will run for president in 2024
- Published
- Aug 15 2023
- Word count
- 319 words
I'm not excited for Haavisto but I'm dreading the thought of Stubb being the president.
If theres any Finns who like Stubb, I would like to hear why
Could I ask you to elaborate why?
I happened to meet him when he was the foreign minister or something, before he became prime minister. I had a short few minutes to talk to him and I got the impression that he wasnt at all interested in talking to any of us peasants. He also felt like very self absorbed in all interviews etc. I wasnt following politics very closely around that time (2011-2012ish) so I cant really say much about his political achievements, which is why I asked in my original comment for people to give me some positives about him.
Oh and a couple of years ago I read some books written by his peers/colleagues and they were outright accusing him of narcissism and not knowing how things work.
But like I said, I dont know much about his actual work history and I'm open to changing my mind. But my gut feeling is a sort of a wet "eughh..." at the moment.
I "ran" into him when he did some sort of official visit to Aalto university and I happened to be parked near the front door, sitting in my gravel lorry, waiting for a load. It was pretty obvious that he only came to talk to me because there was some photographers around, I was left with the feeling of being used as a photo opportunity to show he is talking to "normal" people or whatever. He did ask questions about what we were doing, how I liked my job etc but he didnt seem to listen to my answers very closely.
I've always been pro-NATO but that has never been a deciding factor in my voting. I always thought we would end up in NATO sooner or later, its sad that it required the current situation to happen, but silver linings and all that.
The clashes inside Kokoomus have been in the news today, seems like most wanted either Häkkänen or Valtonen to run but then rolled over pretty easily, it seems.
Funny thing, Stubb just said he is worried about domestic political situation... One of the criticisms that I've read from his prime minister years was that he was completely clueless how the domestic politics work. Oh well..
Not Finnish, but I met Alex Stubb at an event in London (he often seems to be in the UK). I thought he was very affable, but primarily interested in the macro-scale and pan-European political issues.
Ideologically, I'm from the same loaf of bread as him, and as I don't have a grasp of Finnish politics I can't opine on his tenure as prime minister or finance minister.
For some reason I think Sunak and Stubb are similar. I get the same vibes from both.
Would you mind explaining this one, too?
Sorry I think I wasnt clear with what I said. I meant that I'm not a cheerleading fan of his (or anyone) but out of the candidates so far hes probably the one I will vote for. Hes a good politician and all that, just nothing to get too excited about.