Ari Vatanen - MEP Sans Frontières

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By Minna Nalbantoglu in Cassis, Marseille and Aix-en-Provence
     
      In 1999 former rallying World Champion Ari Vatanen stood as a candidate for the moderate conservative National Coalition Party and was elected as a MEP. Now he is seeking re-election, though not in Finland. He is campaigning under the banner of the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) in France - and is almost a certainty to go through on the party list. The fishermen of Marseille believe that the gent from Tuupovaara in Eastern Finland will plead their cause. Vatanen himself believes that the voice of Finland will be heard even more clearly when reflected off the sounding-board of a large European political party.
     
     
"Why is Vatanen not wearing a tie?" whispers a French TV journalist. Ari Vatanen stands on the terrace of a vineyard in the south of France, with a gentle morning breeze wafting through the gathered crowd.
      He stands out plainly from those around him: his flaxen hair immediately sets him apart from the dark heads of the French politicians. And, sure enough, all the other male politicians present are wearing a tie, but Vatanen is not.
      Ari Vatanen has arrived at a European Parliament election gathering in Cassis, a seaside resort town not far from Marseille. For the past five years, Vatanen has represented Finland’s National Coalition conservatives as a MEP in Strasbourg, but now he is running on another ticket: he is now seeking election from the list of the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), the centre-right party of government in France.
     
For the French reporters, Vatanen is a double-whammy curiosity. In the first place, the former rallying champion is a celebrity in France (probably as much as he is in Finland), who has set about building a political career. Secondly, he is in all probability the only foreigner in these elections who will come to be elected as a French MEP.
      The journalists have arrived to follow Vatanen’s day, which began at 9.15 with a discussion with wine producers, the director of a local nature park, and some divers on the subjects of wine-growing and environment issues.
     
Vatanen is campaigning alongside the UMP’s other front-line candidates, as France is adopting a party-list election procedure.
      And since he is No.2 on the list in the Sud-Est region (comprising Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’azur, and the island of Corsica), his election could be described in horse-racing terms as a racing certainty. The only candidate ahead of him on the UMP list is Françoise Grossetête, who is the vice-chairwoman of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats in the current Parliament.
      The TV journalist is interested to see how the Nordic Vatanen can cope in the company of the lively French southerners and their machine-gun delivery.
     
The Finnish candidate is certainly no slouch when it comes to getting his own voice heard.
      He tells those present about his own farm (arable and vines) in the area, and he demands relaxation of France’s old and restrictive rules on viniculture.
      "We have to free up creativity", he says. And the lack of a necktie becomes clear, too: as a wine grower, he thought of himself coming to talk to colleagues, and farmers have no need of ties when they are chatting one with another.
      Vatanen speaks fluent French, though with a strong accent. The French, for their part, are able to get to grips with the pronunciation of his name, and only the R in Ari seems to present a minor problem in the throat.
     
Vatanen has lived and farmed in Provence since 1990. The decision to stand as a candidate in France was nevertheless a difficult one. He says he thought for a long time that it would be a wonderful idea and that it would make perfect sense. On the other hand, there was an element of self-doubt: "What if the Finns don’t understand what I’m about?" He feared that his actions would get him an "unpatriotic" label back home.
      What the Finns think remains of significance to Vatanen, as he hopes some time in the future that he might be able to get back into Finnish politics. In his own words, he has no more specific plans on this subject, but it is clear to him that he does not want to stay permanently in French political life or to take French citizenship.
      Vatanen resolved to try to secure election from the French lists because he believes that under the umbrella of a large French centre-right contingent he will find a "sounding board" for his ideas. "Breaking down the national boundaries is essential. We should see the Parliament in terms of getting things done. In a strong Europe, both Finland and France can flourish", explains Vatanen.
      He asures the Finns that even in his new role he will still promote Finnish interests. He says that in the French group he will only improve the prospects for the Finnish voice to be heard.
     
"There is no more patriotic act than the one I am making", Vatanen declares of his candidacy in France.
      Nevertheless, the election meetings in the South of France concentrate unsurprisingly on the affairs of Southern France. After the wine-growers, Vanhanen, Grossetête, and the other UMP candidates meet fishermen from Marseille, who complain that the EU is reducing their quotas.
     
At the gathering in the fishermen’s association offices, Vatanen stands in front of a flag that looks disconcertingly like the Finnish blue cross on a white background. However, it is not a nod to the foreigner in their midst, but one to the local city: Marseille shares the same colouring on its crest.
      To Michel Meacci, the deputy chairman of the fishermen’s association, Vatanen’s candidacy is an excellent thing. He believes his man will be fighting in the Marseille corner in the European Parliament. After the gathering, Meacci comments that: "Deceiving us is not an option."
     
Ari Vatanen’s accession to the lofty #2 slot on the UMP party list in this region was by no means a foregone conclusion. The party’s members from Sud-Est put up a stiff fight against the idea of giving a practically guaranteed seat to a Finnish candidate.
      "We are being forced to take a Finn to defend Mediterranean policy interests in the EU", complained one French MP in an interview in Le Monde.
      Vatanen was allegedly placed where he is by no lesser a personage than President Jacques Chirac himself. The UMP is the President’s party, and Chirac is said to have demanded that the Finnish resident of Provence should be given a secure seat on the lists.
      On the other hand, the idea of running in France rather than in Finland was Vatanen’s own. He says that he only sought the opinion of UMP general-secretary and Chirac confidant Alain Juppé.
     
The 1981 World Rally Champion has been a close acquaintance of the President from the late 1980s. Chirac was then the Mayor of Paris and he invited Vatanen to attend a road safety seminar in the capital. Thereafter they have kept in touch. For example, when Chirac made a state visit to Finland in 1999, Vatanen was among the official travelling party.
      Vatanen does not believe that the opposition from some politicians within the UMP ranks will hamper his actions as a French MEP. Françoise Grossetête dismisses the matter with a remark that in a party-list election there are always going to be spats over who is placed above whom. Grossetête is firmly behind Vatanen’s candidacy; she sees it as a means of opening up the party to a broader Europe, and also expresses the pragmatic hope that a celebrity candidate could bring in extra votes for the party as whole.
     
And Vatanen IS well-known in France - after all, the four-time winner of the Paris-Dakar Rally had a French set of wheels under him when he won. People still come up to him in the street for autographs, and those who pass by whisper: "Wasn’t that Ari Vatanen back there?"
     
When the UMP candidates /votsikko> head up from Marseille to Aix-en-Provence, an acquaintance from the past stops the Finnish MEP in the street: "Vatanen!"
      Vatanen reacts as if he has met a close chum, and he starts chatting. Jean-Jacques Joachim is a rally enthusiast and a Vatanen fan. He is almost overwhelmed with emotion when he learns that Vatanen intends to represent France in the European Parliament.
     
If social contacts are for most politicians a vehicle with which to make politics, for Vatanen they seem almost to be the whole deal. He is much happier talking about how important it is to get on with people than he is discussing the political ends he would like to pursue.
      During his five years in Strasbourg, Vatanen has won praise specifically for his social skills and his networking ability. Few Finns can boast as good relations with people at the top of the French political heap as he can.
      The French press has also made more mention of his social and schmoozing skills than of his actual achievements in the Parliament chamber. According to Le Monde, he is "extremely popular" among the MEPs, and his circle of friends includes not just senior politicians but the doormen and the waiters, too.
      "Everything is down to street credibility. The way you treat people in the real world. If your dealings with people are selective, you cannot fool people; they see through the sham and the political opportunism", Vatanen says himself.
     
The man from Tuupovaara (a speck on the map in Northern Karelia, between Joensuu and the Russian border) believes his sociable side derives from his Karelian roots. He enjoys chewing the fat with people, giving autographs, and pressing the flesh. Vatanen repeats over and over how important it is to be a politician of "the ordinary people". The tieless candidate refuses, for instance, to be addressed as Monsieur Vatanen. He’s Ari to one and all.
      But can a character who seeks to be on good terms with everyone be too nice a guy to be in politics? A few weeks ago he put up the backs of his party colleagues by publicly lauding Michel Rocard, who heads the list of the Parti Socialiste in Sud-Est. Vatanen said he was extremely pleased to be lining up against former Prime Minister Rocard, whom he described as "a true stateman, practical and far-sighted".
      Talking up the opposition in this way was regarded as practically heretical in France, where there is a rich tradition of divisive political stand-offs across party lines.
     
Vatanen is disappointed and hurt at the negative fall-out. "I praised Rocard because I know him as a man", he says in his defence.
      He does not accept the rigid doctrinaire separation of left and right. At the same time he believes that people do not take him seriously as a politician because he doesn’t do polit-speak and he has difficulty putting himself into the traditional political pigeon-holes.
     
Vatanen and the others return from Aix-en-Provence to Marseille, where a small press conference is to be held. One local journalist expresses the doubt that Vatanen might not always be taking the French line in the European Parliament. Vatanen jumps to his feet and sets about rubbishing the claims.
      "Who could act more on France’s behalf than me?!" he declares firmly. He points out that he has chosen to come and live in France and that he pays his taxes here. He also explains that in the European Parliament the MEPs are not grouped by nationality but that the political groupings cross national boundaries.
      "It is necessary to forge alliances in there, to negotiate with the British, the Scandinavians, and the representatives of all the other member-states", he says.
     
The long day on the campaign trail winds up in an evening get-together with party activists and local politicians in a Marseille hotel. Vatanen is received with enthusiasm, and again he has to sign autographs.
      "Yes, it is possible that his heart may swing a bit towards Finland there in Strasbourg", says the Marseille deputy Mayor Bernard Candullo, after the speeches have been made and the wine is being served.
      "But, you know, that doesn’t bother me in the least. He can speak his piece in Parliament on behalf of France, and on behalf of Finland, and ultimately he is nevertheless talking about the best interests of Europe."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.6.2004

More on this subject:
 BACKGROUND: The Greeks have a Finnish candidate, too

Links:
  Members of the European Parliament 1999-2004: Ari Vatanen
  Nissan Rally Raid Team, Dakar 2004: Ari Vatanen

MINNA NALBANTOGLU / Helsingin Sanomat
minna.nalbantoglu@hs.fi