Radio | News week in plain Finnish | Sunday 4 February 2024

Presidential candidates 2/2

Pekka Haavisto

Image: Image: Silja Viitala, image editing: Asmo Raimoaho / Yle

The topic of the news week is the Finnish presidential election. Alexander Stubb and Pekka Haavisto made it to the second round of the presidential election.

Yesterday we told about Alexander Stubb. He got the most votes in the first round, about 27 percent.

Today we are talking about Pekka Haavisto. He got the second most votes, about 26 percent.

Family and studies

Pekka Haavisto and Antonio Flores. Photo: Jussi Koivunoro / Yle

Pekka Haavisto is the presidential candidate of the voters’ association. The Greens also support Haavisto.

Haavisto is 65 years old, and he lives in Helsinki. Haavisto’s spouse is Antonio Flores, who comes from Ecuador.

Pekka Haavisto’s education is high school.

Career in politics

Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto signed Finland’s NATO application in May 2022. Photo: Henrietta Hassinen / Yle

Pekka Haavisto has been involved in politics since the 1980s. He has been, for example, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of the Environment and Minister of Development. He has also been, for example, the representative of the European Union or the EU and the United Nations or the UN in Africa.

Haavisto has been chairman of the Greens twice.

Haavisto has also been a presidential candidate before, in 2012 and 2018.

On the campaign pages, Haavisto says that a common Finland needs us all and that the president’s most important task is to ensure peace and Finland’s security.

Pekka Haavisto tells Yle that his role model in foreign policy is former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Haavisto says that Annan did a lot of work for world peace.

Hobbies

Pekka Haavisto enjoys literature. He has also written many books. Image: Lehtikuva

Pekka Haavisto’s hobbies are literature, wooden boats and bubble volkars, i.e. Volkswagen Kupla cars.

Haavisto’s favorite city in the world is Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, and his favorite food is pasta dishes.

Photo: Markku Ulander / Lehtikuva

The topic of the news week today was presidential candidate Pekka Haavisto.

The candidate of the Association of Voters, Pekka Haavisto, and the candidate of the coalition, Alexander Stubb, made it to the second round of the presidential election. We talked about Stubbs on the air yesterday Saturday.

Voting day for the presidential election is Sunday, February 11. Then it will be clear who will be the new president of Finland.

Here was Uutisviikko in plain Finnish, see you again next Saturday. Goodbye!