Morzhikha for president

Che Guevara fan enjoyed leading Finland

Today the preliminary results of yesterday's presidential elections in Finland will be announced. It is possible that victory will go to 62-year-old Tarja Halonen (pictured) , whose presidential powers will expire this March. She is the first woman to lead Finland. Yesterday she increased her energy by diving into an ice hole in the Baltic. For the first time in the country's history, an incumbent president is participating in elections.

Eight candidates were running for president of Finland. But Halonen has only two significant rivals: conservative Vice-President of the European Investment Bank Sauli Niiniste, who represents the opposition, and centrist Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. 60% of Finns were confident that the elections would be limited to one round and the victory of Ms. Halonen, representing the Social Democrats. Whether a second round will be needed on January 29 depends on the activity of voters - yesterday they went to the polls very lazily. Today, the Finnish electorate has about 4.1 million votes, and its female half received the right to vote exactly one hundred years ago.

The pre-election debates revolved around the foreign policy issues of neutral Finland: how to build relations with NATO, whether or not to participate in military operations. The model of a “socially responsible state” was also discussed. Tarja Halonen (a lawyer by training, she comes from a poor family) is a supporter of neutrality and the development of a “society of high welfare, education, equality and social protection.”

Even as a student, Tarja Halonen, being a fan of Che Guevara, held radical left views and participated in the pacifist movement, demanding the unilateral disarmament of Finland. In the 70s, she left the Lutheran Church due to the refusal to ordain women. In 1980-1981, Ms. Halonen chaired an organization for the protection of the rights of sexual minorities. A single mother raising a daughter, Ms. Halonen has had a spectacular career. Since 1979, she was elected as a member of parliament from the Social Democrats, and was Minister of Social Affairs, Minister of Justice and Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Six months after receiving the presidential regalia in 2000, Hanonen, after 15 years of marriage, entered into an official marriage with Pennti Arayarvi.

In her second presidential term, Tarja Halonen will apparently maintain the policy of good neighborliness with Russia that she has been pursuing for the past six years. Taking into account Finland's presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2006, Moscow can also count on the stability of its strategic partnership with the EU. Tarja Halonen, who oversees a number of projects with Russia, is a frequent visitor to Moscow and the North-Western District of Russia.

Katerina LABETSKAYA