Current office holder Tarja Halonen

They probably can’t vote . . . although, in many cases, their spouses and friends can. So who should expatriates be fighting for as the next president of Finland?

The first round of the presidential election is just over a week away and pre-voting has just begun. Though the president is increasingly a figurehead, he or she has is an influential figure who will help to guide Finland in terms of domestic and especially foreign policy.

Most of our expatriate readers cannot vote in the forthcoming presidential election. But they can campaign and, in many cases, that campaign can be directed at their Finnish spouse or Finnish friends, who do have a vote. So who should expatriates be campaigning for?

In the run up to election, it has proved impossible to get hold of any of the candidates. But in most cases we found official representatives who were prepared to argue their case. Each candidate has a number which their voters must write on the ballot paper. Nobody can be ‘Number 1’ as this is considered to give them an unfair advantage. For readers who don’t read Finnish, we’ve marked if the campaign website has an English page.

2. Pekka Haavisto -  Helsinki’s deputy mayor Pekka Sauri is campaigning for Green candidate Pekka Haavisto, an MP whose support has shot up during the campaign period.

‘He is a highly international candidate,’ explained the Sauri. ‘Recently the political atmosphere in this country has very much divided between turning inward and trying to regress back to the good old times that never existed or going out into the world and being active with the resources that Finland has got.’

‘Pekka Haavisto represents the second option most clearly. He also had solid international experience . . . in the UN, in the Balkans and in the Sudan.’

‘Pekka is very liberal regarding immigration,’ adds the deputy mayor. ‘Immigration has been seen as a social problem; that immigrants come here to claim welfare. But many immigrants come here to work,’ claims Sauri, who adds the Haavisto has been influential in changing attitudes to foreigners and having them treated ‘as individuals, not part of some category.’

For Sauri, the recent reaction against internationalization is result of politicians not explaining the benefits clearly enough in a fast changing world. Haavisto, he argues, is committed to ‘getting the right balance’ in terms of this process. In Sauri’s view, Finland is quickly moving to a situation where English, not Swedish, is the country’s actual second language. (English page).

3. – Timo Soini (True Finns). It has not proved possible to talk to anybody from Timo Soini’s campaign. However, his campaign website includes an English-language section in which he emphasises that his party’s policy – of saying No to EU bailouts – is in the economic interests of everyone living in Finland. He also claims that he is ready to be the ‘father for our great nation. I welcome tough challenges and I want to fight for the good causes. I want to have a say when the future of Finland is discussed and our direction decided.’ (English page).

4 – Paavo Väyrynen (Centre). Petri Neittaanmäki, campaign assistant for the Centre Party’s Paavo Väyrynen is blunt when asked why expatriates should support his candidate; it’s for the same reasons anybody else should. ‘The president will lead Finnish foreign policy and Paavo is the best candidate for that. He was Foreign Minister for four years and has been involved in foreign policy for the last ten years.’

Neittaanmäki rigorously defends Väyrynen against the criticism that he’s lost the presidential election twice, coming second in 1988 and third in 1994, and that this third attempt is just vanity. ‘He has had a lot more experience since then, such as being a Member of the European Parliament.’ He also insists that his candidate do not lose his parliamentary seat in 2011 due to lack of popularity but rather because he switched constituencies from Lapland so that the Centre Party had more experienced candidates in the south. Väyrynen is in favour – if it helps the economy – of leaving the euro. (No English page).

5. Paavo Lipponen (SDP). Esko Ranto, the campaign manager for SDP candidate Paavo Lipponen, insists that the former Prime Minister ‘is the most international candidate. He has always promoted the role of Finland in the international arena and has been active in relations with the European Union, the United States and Russia.’

Ranto explains that, for Lipponen, ‘the language question is the most important.’ Everything should be done to help foreigners in Finland to ‘learn Finnish’ but they ‘should be allowed to speak whatever language they want.’ Lipponen is concerned about True Finns because ‘they have created a political climate which is not so tolerant of foreigners. The danger is that the party is not in control’ of the ‘racists’ within it.

Ranto also insisted that his candidate in some idealist. ‘Our candidate has been behind the growth in the last two to three decades,’ he asserted. ‘In the 1990s, when he was Prime Minister, he created 300,000 new jobs through co-operation between the welfare state and companies.’ (English page).

6. Sauli Niinistö (Kokoomus). Sauli Niinisto’s team’s policy is that any questions must be asked directly to Niinisto himself. Niinisto is pro-EU, pro-internationalization, pro-NATO and pro-business. He is, of course, the front-runner by a wide margin. (Limited English).

7 – Sari Essayah – Christian Democrat Sari Essayah’s campaign manager emphasises that Essayah is ‘from a different background from all the other candidates’ because ‘her father is Moroccan.’ Though her parents split when she was young and she hardly saw her father, this still makes her sympathetic to foreigners. Also ‘her Christian values mean that she cares for the weaker members of society.’ For the same reason, ‘she thinks marriage should be between a man and a woman and this is what many immigrants think as well.’ The campaign manager dismisses criticism of his party’s election alliances with True Finns as ‘purely tactical. We do not share the same values.’ He also insists that the party is ‘Christian’ but not ‘fundamentalist.’ (English page).

8 – Eva Biaudet – For the Swedish People’s Party’s Maria Swanljung, Eva Biaudet is the ‘only one’ who expatriates should campaign for.

‘She is the one who has been speaking-up the most about Finland being a multicultural country and being welcoming to all kinds of people,’ explained Biaudet’s press secretary. She is then one ‘worried about Finland turning in on itself.’ According to Swanljung, former MP Biaudet’s work as the Ombudsman for Minorities means that she has dedicated her working life to helping foreigners. She wants Finland to be ‘open internationally’ accepted ‘welcome people’ whether they come for ‘love, work or asylum.’

Dismissive of the view that a vote for Biaudet is ‘a wasted vote,’ she points that the Swedish People’s Party candidate who came second in 1994 was only marginally ahead of Biaudet at this stage in the campaign (No English).

9 – Paavo Ahrinmäki. The Left Alliance’s Paavo Ahrinmäki also proved elusive with nobody from his ‘gang’ (as it’s called on his website) feeling able to able to give us any information. According to the 35 year-old’s manifesto, ‘A left wing society is open and accepting. In our view, the world’s people’s should live together and help each other. Solidarity between the world’s people’s is the only way to survive problems such as  . . . global warming . . . Xenophobia is the Left’s strategic and ideological opponent . . . We need an anti-racist president.’ (No English).