Niinistö played it safe
Conservative candidate avoided new initiatives and attacks
Sauli Niinistö
|
|
|
National Coalition Party candidate Sauli Niinistö, who was consistently the front-runner in the ongoing Finnish presidential race, was obviously relieved when the results of advance voting showed that he had won nearly 40 per cent of the absentee ballots.
His poll numbers, which declined consistently as the campaign wore on, had clearly made the 63-year-old Niinistö nervous. There was some uneasiness when the result of the advance voting came out, but as the evening wore on he showed a sense of relief.
Niinistö has a confident air about his prospects in the runoff race.
“The themes have already emerged. There will be no new start. We will just continue the same campaign”, he said, speaking to supporters in Helsinki on Sunday evening.
He also said that he would not have had a preferred opponent in the second round. Green League candidate Pekka Haavisto, who came in second on Sunday, will face Niinistö in a runoff.
Niinistö put off his decision to run for president, even though he was aware of his considerable popularity among the electorate.
Niinistö’s first-round campaign, which was implemented with a massive budget, appeared to be aimed at avoiding anything that might dent the candidate’s popularity. He avoided making new initiatives or attacks against his opponents.
Niinistö praised Finland's achievements and Finnish enterprise, and suggested that the president also needs to be an active player.
The image emerged that as president, Niinistö would assume all of the power that the office could bestow upon him.
Niinistö also ran for president six years ago. At that time his campaign was quite uninhibited, because his position was that of a challenger of incumbent Tarja Halonen. He marketed himself as a “workers’ president”.
Niinistö’s supporters would have wanted him to run for the office already in 2000, but he resisted the pressure and refused to run.
Helsingin Sanomat
|
| 23.1.2012 - TODAY |
 Niinistö played it safe |
|
