Top three in presidential race sign up in search of votes
Halonen is late out of the blocks, Niinistö has an empty fridge, and Vanhanen flashes the K-card
By Jaakko Hautamäki, Matti Mielonen, and Anna-Riitta Sippola
LAHTI. It is 4 p.m. and hundreds have gathered in the foyer of the Sibelius Hall in Lahti, but the most important personage is still missing. Social Democrat presidential candidate and incumbent Tarja Halonen's campaign tour launch begins more than a little late.
The public are patient - and predominantly middle-aged or older.
From among the over-50s crowd clad in their sober blacks and greys can be spotted one young blonde lady dressed in jeans.
There are a few other young voters here and there, perhaps a dozen or so, even though a popular band is waiting for the show to start in the main hall.
Jonna Leppänen, 28, who has travelled here 50 kilometres from Iitti, is an experienced supporter:
"I voted for Halonen last time round [in 2000]. I haven't met her, but from what I have heard, she's quite ordinary and unaffected", says Leppänen. She pulls out a red Halonen campaign woollen hat.
"I plan to ask her to sign this."
When Halonen arrives, 20 minutes late, for the opening date on her People's President Tour, she gets a bouquet of flowers from Lisa-Maria Hyytiä, the young daughter of a metalworker - and is almost immediately the subject of an approach from a surprisingly impassioned admirer.
A dark man comes up to the candidate with no concern for the security detail or Halonen's husband Pentti Arajärvi. "She has done so much good for us Finns", enthuses Moroccan-born welder Belabid El Houcine.
The security man shrugs his shoulders and sighs that these are sometimes slightly awkward situations.
At the press conference preceding the opening event itself, Halonen says a few words about being a candidate. "It's exciting, in just suitable amounts. For me, with a six-year stint behind me, it feels rather as if I am renewing a contract. I hope that the people, who are my employer, will share my view."
At the interval the crowd of around 1,500 in attendance have a quarter of an hour to shake hands with the candidate.
"I got lucky", says pensioner Pentti Valtonen after succeeding in shaking the President's hand.
"I was a chauffeur for her once back in the late 1970s. She was teaching at a course arranged by the local government authorities and I offered her a lift. In a Volvo Amazon. I remember wondering then how she managed to find time to teach in the evenings after her day job", says Valtonen.
And did the candidate still remember you?
"No. But she might have, if I'd remembered to jog her memory."
When Halonen disappears back into the hall, Jonna Leppänen comes up with her woolly hat on her head.
"I got the autograph. Halonen put the hat on my head, so she could write on it properly. She wished me a Merry Christmas."
LOHJA/VANTAA. On Saturday morning, presidential candidate Sauli Niinistö sits in the corner of a bookstore in a Lohja shopping mall.
In front of him is a seemingly endless line of local people bearing the candidate's book in their hands.
"It's for my sister. Could you please put ‘Merry Christmas from Ilkka and from Sauli Niinistö'."
Everyone has his or her own special request for the dedication to go with the signature.
There is a Yuletide feel in the air as in the background can be heard the strains of the SDP's campaign, with the traditional Tiernapojat tableau's sung message about Jesus and King Herod.
"There'll be two votes coming your way from us", says one of the autograph-collectors.
"Oh, thank you", replies Niinistö to each and every one who declares their voting intentions. There is a certain humility in the response, when the normal curt Finnish "Thanks", would be churlishly inadequate. The candidate has learnt European ways.
The only problem he's faced has apparently been shortage of hours in the day: as a single man, he has nobody back home looking after his supply lines, there's precious little time to get any sleep, and his refrigerator at home has gaping empty shelves.
On the way from Lohja to the Jumbo shopping complex in Vantaa, the candidate feels like dozing off. "My body thinks it's time for a bit of peace on earth."
In front of Jumbo, the crowd is even larger than in Lohja. An assistant looks on as Niinistö goes about his work with a sure and steady hand. "There's no need for concern", says the assistant. Six years ago, the National Coalition Party's candidate was the more flamboyant Riitta Uosukainen, a former Speaker of Parliament.
In another part of Vantaa, the opening of Café Niinistö in the former premises of a funeral director's firm plays to a full house.
When he gets to Helsinki, Niinistö plans to go to the hairdresser's for a nap in the chair. Last week he dropped off while at the dentist's.
Is the going tough, then?
"No, not at all. I can easily take an extra two weeks after this run."
LAPPEENRANTA. "When Esko Aho was here six years ago, the hall was full", recalls Pekka Reitola at the beginning of Centre Party candidate Matti Vanhanen's election gathering in the Lappeenranta Auditorium at City Hall. Now the room is roughly half-full.
Reitola and others figure that the timing of the event is poor: around lunchtime on a Saturday just before Christmas there are a good many alternatives.
The event is carefully choreographed. MP Pertti Salovaara interviews the candidate, who reveals that already in his childhood home he grasped the idea of rights and duties.
An old piece of film is projected onto the wall: the walrus-moustached Kyösti Kallio [Finland's 4th President, 1937-40]is formally sworn in to office.
The elegant Maria Lund sings a rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow in a Finnish translation before Vanhanen gets to address his public.
The candidate points out that Tarja Halonen is the common candidate of the two main leftist parties. The political centre and the right, meanwhile, will be engaged in a first-round primary against each other, and the second round will be the decider.
Vanhanen explains to his audience in painstaking detail the business of crisis management matters and responsibilities.
Some may return home from military operations in bodybags, and hence the decision to take part in such action must be made with care, he says.
And back comes Salovaara to talk about Vanhanen's childhood and youth: responsibility from an early age.
Now it is Urho Kekkonen whose face appears projected large on the wall, delivering an assurance to the people after his election to the Presidency in 1956.
"What Urkki did before, Matti will do now", says Salovaara.
Vanhanen is speaking again, talking about globalisation in such clear terms that even the biggest hayseeds among the audience will go home believing they now understand the broad sweep of world trade policy.
In the foreign & security policy section of his address, Vanhanen notes that he does not wish to stress the traditional military threats, but rather the threats to our everyday security: how the elderly should be looked after, how young people should get on the employment ladder and into permanent jobs, how we should prepare for climate change by ensuring an adequate level of self-sufficiency.
There are bursts of applause now and then, when the subject-matter hits home with the listeners.
Maria Heikkilä, the other soloist with the houseband Republic, kicks into a song, and the tempo picks up.
And again there is a piece of film projected on the wall: a young Vanhanen tells how he read about the Kennedy family already at a tender age. In particular the views of Robert Kennedy directed the candidate's thoughts on the development of Northern Espoo.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 11.12.2005
JAAKKO HAUTAMÄKI, MATTI MIELONEN AND ANNA-RIITTA SIPPOLA / Helsingin Sanomat
jaakko.hautamaki@hs.fi, matti.mielonen@hs.fi, anna-riitta.sippola@hs.fi
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| 13.12.2005 - THIS WEEK |
 Top three in presidential race sign up in search of votes |
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