Jutta Urpilainen, the EU commissioner for international partnerships, on Sunday announced she would run for the presidency of her native Finland.
“I want that we Finns can continue to commit to not leaving anyone behind,” Urpilainen said at a press conference for the Socialist Democratic Party. “That is why I am available as SDP’s candidate in the presidential election,” she said.
Urpilainen will leave her role at the European Commission in Brussels on December 2 to start her campaign, Finnish media Yle reported.
Elections for the six-year term of president are to be held at the end of January, with a possible second round in February. The current president, Sauli Niinistö, is still popular after guiding the historically neutral country into NATO, but he has hit the country’s two-year term limit.
Finnish socialists — including ex-Prime Minister Sanna Marin — have been begging Urpilainen to jump into a race that’s already well under way ahead of the January 28 vote.
An YLE poll published Wednesday found just 4 percent of respondents backing Urpilainen — seventh place.
“There are 70 days ahead. Everything that needs to be said will be said in time. We are making a campaign that will be noticed,” Urpilainen said.
Alexander Stubb, the former center-right prime minister who bid unsuccessfully to be the EPP spitzenkandidat in 2019, is pulling ahead of former Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, the poll showed. Olli Rehn, who handled enlargement and economics portfolios during two stints as a European commissioner, is running fourth.
