Left Alliance not to field own candidate in Presidential elections

Chairwoman Siimes appeals to Halonen to seek second term

print this

Opposition Left Alliance chairwoman Suvi-Anne Siimes has said that her party will not field a candidate in next year's Presidential elections, or even make an endorsement.
      However, Siimes said in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat that she has told President Tarja Halonen that she would be very happy if the President were to seek re-election.
      In the Presidential election six years ago the Left Alliance did not officially endorse Tarja Halonen, but very many figures in the party, including Siimes herself, campaigned actively on her behalf. In fact, she says that even without an official party endorsement, Halonen got more enthusiastic support from Left Alliance supporters in the early part of the previous Presidential election campaign than she did from supporters of her own party, the Social Democrats.
     
Siimes says that Left Alliance members support Halonen because they largely agree with her views on foreign policy, human rights, and fairness in globalisation.
      "We are very pleased that Finland has a leftist woman as President."
      Siimes also says that she is "amused" by the plans by the National Coalition Party and the Centre Party for cooperation in the second round of Presidential elections.
      "To me it looks like an eternal unfulfilled right-wing dream. It is the same kind of political daydream as the option of a centre-right government." Siimes predicts that trying to dictate to voters in the Presidential elections will not succeed.
     
Siimes says that she was surprised at the decision of European Investment Bank Vice President Sauli Niinistö to run for President as a candidate of the National Coalition Party, saying that apparently he does not get much satisfaction from his present job.
      She feels that Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen would be a formidable Presidential candidate, which she feels should be taken into consideration in the Halonen camp.
      She is also somewhat critical of plans by the Green League to field a candidate in the elections. "What do the Greens think that they have to gain by setting a candidate to run against Halonen, who has promoted those values which, I believe, are important for the Greens as well?"


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Social Democrats postpone nomination of Presidential candidate until autumn (13.1.2005)
  Former Minister of Finance Niinistö enters race for Finnish Presidency (1.4.2005)
  Centre-right cooperation in Presidential election gains support (16.3.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat