PROFILE: Alex Stubb is too smart to make trouble (UPDATED 2.4.)
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By Annamari Sipilä in Brussels
Anyone and everyone has an opinion about Alexander Stubb, the incoming Minister for Foreign Affairs in the wake of the sacking of Ilkka Kanerva.
Many admire Stubb. There are a good many, too, who cannot stand him at any price.
However, there is a particularly large crowd who profess to loathe Stubb but secretly admire him.
Stubb stands for everything that has not traditionally belonged in Finnish politics, or for that matter in the Finnish culture as a whole.
Stubb’s knowhow, experience, good connections, and his international smarts can all be forgiven.
But for many his self-confidence is just a bridge or three too far. Stubb knows that he knows, and he is not slow to point out when others do not.
Fortunately he has a streak of self-irony to go with it. When media researcher Kaarina Hazard described Alex Stubb as “a buck-toothed young man who resembles a cheerful squirrel”, Stubb turned the barb into a compliment by inserting the definition prominently on his home-page.
Stubb was elected to the European Parliament four years ago, taking a hefty 115,000 votes, the second-biggest tally of any of the Finnish candidates.
He is a federalist by inclination, which is not always seen as a plus in Euro-sceptic Finland.
Prior to his career as a MEP, Stubb served behind the scenes in EU policy-making. He has been an adviser to the then President of the European Commission Romano Prodi and has also been on the staff of Finland’s Permanent Representation at the European Union under the then Ambassador Antti Satuli.
When Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen took Finland into the core of the Union, young Stubb was to be seen beavering away in the background.
Aside from these tasks, Stubb managed to complete his doctorate not long after turning thirty. And not from any old second-rate school, either: he has a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.
Somewhere in between all this work, study, and Mepping, Stubb has also found the time to write and co-write an impressive pile of books on EU-related topics.
And play a mean game of golf.
And establish an ideal family that comprises a successful and elegant British lawyer wife Suzanne Innes and two children.
But what is Stubb like behind the fulsome CV?
As recently as eight years ago, Stubb could yell at journalists if his message did not go through the first time.
He doesn’t raise his voice any more. Stubb, 40, has not gone soft with the years, but he has scrubbed up nicely. He is good at marketing himself and his subjects.
There have been fears in some circles in Finland about how Stubb - known for his flamboyant statements - will manage as a foreign minister.
The fears are groundless.
If Stubb lets out something unexpected, it will be a carefully calculated move.
One grizzled political expert reckoned that when he finds his feet, Stubb will walk all over Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen as he pleases.
But Alex Stubb is far too clever to start making waves or picking fights with anyone right away and in the open.
As for the walking-over - that he can manage, no trouble.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in the online edition on 1.4.2008
ANNAMARI SIPILÄ / Helsingin Sanomat
annamari.sipila@hs.fi
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| 1.4.2008 - THIS WEEK |
 PROFILE: Alex Stubb is too smart to make trouble (UPDATED 2.4.) |
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