Editorial: Made in Finland

Photo: SCANPIX

Alexander Stubb (46), set to sit on Finning prime ministerial stool, is the embodiment of a trendy politician. The man casts a dynamic shadow and never seems to sit still.

Ever shuttling between Oulu and Brussels, or Helsinki and South-East Asia – promoting companies and stuff Made in Finland, as its foreign trade minister, at spare moments Mr Stubb is doing triathlon, writing columns (including for Postimees, till this spring), tweeting in Twitter, or shaking citizen hands in some public place listing to the common man complaints and accumulating feedback.  

Equally, he’s at home in the perfumed EU lobbies and open-air markets in some depressive small town. 

Always immaculate, well groomed, straight-talking, Mr Stubb is liked by Finland’s youth and comes across as a breath of fresh air to the backdrop of old school party cadre (in Finland’s case, soc dems or Centre Party). In social media, he may look ideal. Even so: «Politicians aren’t ideal, at least not me.» That’s what he says.

Elected chairman of Finland’s centre right National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), Mr Stubb underlines in his programme speech that Finland needs to stop adding to its external debt. «It is selfish, even immoral to live in debt and send the bill to our children.» Meanwhile, the controversial and unpopular cutting of children benefits can, according to Mr Stubb, be «structurally reviewed» if its summary fails to bargain about savings.

Should Mr Stubb be confirmed as PM, after Midsummer Day, to lead the five party coalition, he’ll have just under ten months to infect the stagnant Finland with his dynamic lifestyle. Probably, Mr Stubb and Estonia’s PM Taavi Rõivas have a lot to talk about. Both have risen to the post by same circumstances; in both countries, economy needs a push; both aim at a decent result at elections in spring 2015.

No such Estonia-Finland comparison applies, sadly, with how the intermission-government head was found. In Finland, Kokoomus featured an intense inside-the-party campaign with two other credible candidates – economy minister Jan Vapaavuori and social minister Paula Risikko. Either would have been fit to carry the PM portfolio. Over here, in Estonia, the prime minister was basically found in emergency, over a couple of hours.

Alexander Stubb’s aim is of the modest kind: «I want Finland to be the world’s best place to be born, to live and to die.» Good luck!