A president of the Finnish national gay and lesbian group SETA in the 1980’s, Tarja Halonen, is now the President of all of Finland after a runoff election against a more conservative opponent on February 6. The divorced mother of a now-grown daughter, Halonen lives with her long-time male partner Pentti Arajarvi; rumors are rife that they may legally marry in the near future as they move into the presidential palace. Social Democrat Halonen has been serving as Finland’s first woman foreign minister since 1995 and now becomes its first woman President, thanks largely to women’s votes. She thinks it’s fitting she’ll be President on the 100th anniversary of Finnish women’s suffrage in 2005, an achievement fellow Social Democrat Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen called "an historic moment for Finland." She topped former Center Party Prime Minister Esko Aho by more than 100,000 votes, 51.6% - 48.4%, with voter turnout exceeding 75%. The foreign press downplayed the election itself as being more about personalities than issues—there wasn’t much disagreement between the candidates—and downplayed the post of President as largely symbolic since its domestic powers were restricted in a recent constitutional reform. Halonen will be sworn in March 1 for a six-year term.
A radical in the 1960’s whose idol was Che Guevara, Halonen was a trade union attorney who entered politics in 1979. She served on the Helsinki City Council for 20 years and held several ministerial positions before becoming Foreign Minister. Although she’s viewed as having moved more to the center over the years, she has retained her ties with labor, the left, and former communists. She describes herself as a "relative pacifist" and believes Finland should stay out of NATO, although she’s grown more enthusiastic about the European Union over the years. She is also notorious for having quit the church 85% of Finns belong to, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, because it does not ordain women. Lipponen described her as "a person who with her own individuality, her openness and her genuine character appealed across party lines." She’s been praised as caring, down-to-earth, effective, modest, and witty.
A radical in the 1960’s whose idol was Che Guevara, Halonen was a trade union attorney who entered politics in 1979. She served on the Helsinki City Council for 20 years and held several ministerial positions before becoming Foreign Minister. Although she’s viewed as having moved more to the center over the years, she has retained her ties with labor, the left, and former communists. She describes herself as a "relative pacifist" and believes Finland should stay out of NATO, although she’s grown more enthusiastic about the European Union over the years. She is also notorious for having quit the church 85% of Finns belong to, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, because it does not ordain women. Lipponen described her as "a person who with her own individuality, her openness and her genuine character appealed across party lines." She’s been praised as caring, down-to-earth, effective, modest, and witty.
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