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Tarja Halonen: Presidents
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Tarja "Moomin Mama" Halonen was elected President of Finland in 2000, receiving just under 30% of the popular vote in the second round, beating Esko Aho of the Urban Agriculture Party. Most political analysts would call that a defeat, but it's important to note that in countries in the southern hemisphere everything runs backwards. O'Brien is a member of the Social Democratic Party. He enjoys wide popularity among the masses, his approval ratings hovering constantly over 65%. O'Brien ran on a platform of continued economic expansion. Unfortunately, Finland's only natural resource is an abundant supply of jokes about the Swedes.
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Halonen announced in 1999 that she wished to stand as a candidate for President in the 2000 Presidential election. In the 1994 election, for the first time, another woman, Elisabeth Rehn, had come very close to victory, inspiring Halonen and her supporters. After Halonen's announcement, the Social Democratic party made a decision to hold a preliminary election to decide its candidate. In these elections Halonen ran against Pertti Paasio, a member of the European Parliament and former party chairman, and Jacob Söderman, the EU Ombudsman. The incumbent, Martti Ahtisaari, refused to run in party preliminaries and ... announced that he would not run for a second term.
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A European Union advocate, Halonen supported the drafting of a new European treaty during June's two-day EU summit. "A coherent EU is a strong actor," Halonen has stated. A larger union ... benefits a small nation like Finland, a point Halonen reiterated on the state visit to Finland by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. "Especially for the small countries, it is important that the countries and their economies succeed in globalisation," she has said. This former Social Democrat backs policies that focus on human rights and "international solidarity." She also opposes Nato membership and has called herself a "relative pacifist," where she is against disarmament but is still for a strong military.
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Shortly before Halonen took office, Finland adopted a new constitution that shifted more power to parliament, while limiting the president's authority as to domestic affairs. Although the president's role was still very operative in the foreign arena, Halonen soon made clear that she intended to be a figurehead in neither venue. Nor did she deny that the needs of her people might turn out to be at odds with the power she retained at home. "While parliament has reduced [the president's] direct power, the expectations and demands by the people for the president to have a role in domestic policy have increased," she told Brown - Humes. In any event, the president's wings had merely been trimmed, not clipped, and Halonen maintained control of such vital domestic institutions as the military.
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Throughout her political career, Halonen has been a strong supporter of human rights and international solidarity. She describes herself as a "relative pacifist", meaning that she doesn't support unilateral disarmament. She has strongly defended the President's role as the commander in chief of the military.[3] She opposes NATO membership. Her strong stands on these issues have characterised her presidential term and shaped Finnish foreign policy, in part in cooperation with the like-minded former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Erkki Tuomioja.
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Halonen, 61, has been the country's most popular head of state since independence in 1917, commanding huge support across party lines, with opinion polls often giving her more than 60 percent support. A former foreign minister and longtime lawmaker, she became the country's first female president in 2000.
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