Tarja Halonen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tarja Kaarina Halonen | |
 |
|
|
11th President of Finland
|
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office March 1, 2000 |
|
| Preceded by | Martti Ahtisaari |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
|
|
|
| Born | December 24, 1943 |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party of Finland |
| Spouse | Dr. Pentti Arajärvi |
Tarja Kaarina Halonen (born December 24, 1943, in Helsinki, Finland) is the President of Finland. She began her first term of office in 2000 and was re-elected on January 29, 2006. Her current term expires in 2012. She is the eleventh President of Finland and the first woman to hold the office.
She married her long time common-law partner, Dr. Pentti Arajärvi, after she was elected President for the first term.
Halonen has been mentioned several times as a possible future United Nations Secretary-General [1].
Contents |
[edit] Chronology of her political career
- Member of the Social Democratic Party 1971–2000
- Prime Minister's Parliamentary Secretary 1974–1975
- Member of Helsinki City Council 1977–1996
- Member of Parliament 1979–2000
- Minister of Social Affairs and Health 1987–1990
- Minister of Nordic Cooperation 1989–1991
- Minister of Justice 1990–1991
- Minister of Foreign Affairs 1995–2000
- President of Finland 2000–present
[edit] Political Views
Early in her political career Ms. Halonen represented the radical left wing of her former party (social-democrat). Ms. Halonen opposed publicly the proposed free trade agreement between the European Economic Community (EEC, later European Union) in 1973. As an employee of the Association of Trade Unions, Ms Halonen advocated diplomatic recognition of East Germany.
Despite her early solidarity with president Kekkonen's policy toward the Soviet Union, she is now a stated strong supporter of human rights, "international solidarity" and pacifism. Her strong stands in these issues have characterized her presidential term and shaped Finnish foreign policy in cooperation with the like-minded minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Erkki Tuomioja.
[edit] Biography
Tarja Kaarina Halonen was born on 24 December 1943 in the district of Kallio, Helsinki, traditionally a working-class area, the daughter of Vieno Olavi Halonen and Lyyli Elina Loimola. She obtained a Master of Laws from the University of Helsinki in 1968. Halonen served as the Social Affairs Secretary and General Secretary of the National Union of Students (SYL) from 1969 to 1970 and, partly due to having held this position, she obtained a post as a Lawyer with the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) from 1970 to 1974. She joined the Social Democratic Party in 1971.
In 1974 Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa appointed Halonen as a parliamentary secretary. She became acquainted with the world of Finnish politics and government and began her political career, going on to hold a number of public offices. From 1975 until 1996, she was a member of Helsinki City Council. Additionally, in 1979 she was elected to Parliament, of which she was a member until 2000. In the Parliament her first formal post was as a Chairman of the Social Committee from 1984 to 1987.
In 1987, Halonen was appointed as Minister of Social Affairs and Health in the government of Prime Minister Harri Holkeri, a position she held until 1990. In addition to this, she served as Minister of Nordic Cooperation from 1989 until 1991, the same year in which she was also appointed chairman of the International Solidarity Foundation, a post she relinquished in 2000. From 1990 to 1991 she served as Minister of Justice in the government of Esko Aho, and from 1995 until her election as President she served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the government of her Social Democratic colleague Paavo Lipponen.
[edit] The path to the presidency
Halonen announced in 1999 that she wished to run as a candidate for President in the 2000 Presidential election. In 1994 presidentials, for the first time, another woman, Ms. Elisabeth Rehn had come very close to victory, inspiring Halonen and her supporters. After the announcement of Ms. Halonen, the Social Democratic party made a decision to hold a preliminary elections to decide its candidate. In these elections Halonen ran against Pertti Paasio, a member of the European Parliament and former party chairman, and Jacob Söderman, the EU Ombudsman. The incumbent, Martti Ahtisaari, refused to run in party preliminaries and thus announced that he would not run for a second term.
While Halonen started from the fourth place in the polls, in the elections she got the most votes, 40.0% of popular votes. The nearest opponent, the former Prime Minister Esko Aho of the Centre Party, got 34.4%. Since neither of the two candidates got over 50% of votes, a second round was held as required by the Finnish Law. In the second round, Ms. Halonen narrowly defeated her opponent with 51.6% against 48.4% thus becoming Finland's first female President. Her first term began on March 1, 2000. In 2006 she was re-elected for another term as President.
[edit] Presidency
After her narrow election victory in the first election, Halonen's approval ratings have risen and reached the peak of 88% in December 2003. In the most recent survey made in February 12, 2006 her approval rate was at 74%. She is widely regarded as an easily approachable and down-to-earth person. Halonen has often been compared to "Moominmamma", a mother-figure from the comic strips and books created by Tove Jansson. Many people appreciate that she has made a career from modest circumstances due to her own competence, which has great value for meritocracy-minded Finns. Halonen was nominated as one of the top ten members of the "Suuret Suomalaiset" (greatest Finns) TV special in 2004, the only living person to be included.
Her lifestyle has caused some consternation, but her independent attitude has also brought her admiration. In the 1960s, she quit the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, to which the majority of Finns belong, to protest against its policy of taxing church members, and its stance against female priests.
The number of things Halonen has been criticized about include her participation in the May 2005 Victory Day celebration in Moscow, and her opposition of the use of landmines in the Finnish military doctrine. Also it has been claimed that she has nominated some female candidates over their more qualified male colleagues for high positions, in particular the president of the Supreme Court of Finland.
[edit] Presidential election 2006
On May 20, 2005, Tarja Halonen held a press conference in Mäntyniemi where she announced her willingness to run for the second term. This was the desired answer for the SDP delegation that visited her two days earlier. In addition to her own party's support, the leader of the Left Alliance, Suvi-Anne Siimes, gave her support for Halonen's future campaign.
Also giving his support was the American talk show host Conan O'Brien. After discovering that he was very popular in Finland, he attributed it to the fact that he looks like Tarja Halonen. When he found out that she was up for reelection, he wanted her to win because "I like looking like the president of a country, even if it is a woman". He went as far as producing mock campaign ads, and attack ads against her opponents. It is uncertain how much effect this had on the election.
On November 19, SDP's party council meeting was held; praised as "the president of the whole nation", she was unanimously chosen as the presidential candidate. Shortly thereafter, the party council of the Left Alliance gave the party's official support to Halonen.
Halonen's support for the second term was strong. She received 46% of the first round vote in the election. Sauli Niinistö (of the National Coalition Party) was second with 24%. They faced each other in a runoff on January 29, 2006, where Halonen was re-elected with 51.8% of the vote against Mr. Niinistö's 48.2%. The re-election was close call. She led on pre-votes, but as more debates were shown in the media, she eventually received less given votes on the real voting day than Mr. Niinistö.
[edit] Family and interests
President Halonen's interests include art history, the theatre and swimming. She also enjoys drawing and painting, and she has two cats named Miska and Rontti. She speaks Finnish, Swedish, English, German, French and Estonian.
On August 26, 2000, President Halonen married her longtime partner, Dr Pentti Arajärvi, in a civil ceremony at her official residence, Mäntyniemi, after a relationship of more than fifteen years. Halonen's adult daughter Anna, and Arajarvi's adult son, Esko, acted as witnesses. Both children were from previous relationships. While in Finland her relationship was not an issue, the marriage clarified the position of Dr. Arajärvi abroad.
Anna Halonen is the daughter of President Halonen and her former partner, Kari Pekkonen. She is currently studying international politics at the University of Kent in Canterbury, Great Britain.
[edit] Gay and lesbian issues
In 1980–1981 Tarja Halonen served as the chairman of SETA (Seksuaalinen Tasavertaisuus RY, Sexual Equality), the main LGBT rights organization in Finland. When she became Minister for Justice in 1990, there were high hopes among SETA members that she would stand up for gay rights, but many were disappointed when Halonen seemingly did nothing to advance their cause. [2]
In 2003, a widely publicised incident occurred when member of parliament Tony Halme mistakenly referred to Tarja Halonen as a lesbian. In a radio interview, Halme referred to his background of growing up "on the streets", and said: "We have a lesbian as president and me as parliamentarian. Everything seems possible." [3] Although Halme intended to refer to social mobility with his comment, it was interpreted as an insult by much of the media. Halonen herself made no comment. Halme later apologized saying he had been misunderstood. [4]
According to her authorized biography published in 2005, Halonen is critical of some unnamed members of the Finnish civil service for being gay or lesbian and not coming out and campaigning for sexual equality. She accused these closeted homosexuals of reaping the benefits of other people's work for sexual equality without contributing themselves.
[edit] Pop culture effect
On October 11, 2005, American late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien pointed out several times on his show that he has been recognized as resembling Tarja Halonen after meeting a Finnish man in the audience before the show. Since then he has done many comedy bits about that fact, including some that promoted Halonen for a second term. Halonen's appearance in American popular culture received publicity in Finland. About a week and a half after the initial show, Conan showed actual Finnish newspaper articles which commented on the resemblance, one calling them "like two berries" (which is a Finnish idiom, equivalent to the English "peas in a pod").
After the initial publicity received by O'Brien's sketch, Tarja Halonen's re-election campaign started advertising on the Finnish broadcast of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The link with O'Brien has sparked debate over his effect on the election. On January 28, 2006, O'Brien announced that Late Night with Conan O'Brien would visit Finland in February 2006, which he did. He met with Tarja Halonen on February 14, and Conan presented her with a heart-shaped box of chocolates. They then sat down and during the relaxed discussion Halonen asked Conan if she looks more like his mother or his father, and joked "You have also made a great favor for us, because I think that at least now quite many more Americans know where Finland is."
| Preceded by: Martti Ahtisaari |
President of Finland 2000– |
Succeeded by: Incumbent |
| Preceded by: Paavo Rantanen |
Minister of Foreign Affairs (Finland) 1995–2000 |
Succeeded by: Erkki Tuomioja |
| Preceded by: Matti Louekoski |
Minister of Justice (Finland) 1990–1991 |
Succeeded by: Hannele Pokka |
[edit] See also
- Tarja Halonen's first inauguration speech, 2000
- Tarja Halonen's second inauguration speech, 2006
- List of national leaders
[edit] External links
- Halonen, Tarja Kaarina
- Tarja Halonen & SETA
- Tarja Halonen's 2006 Presidential Campaign Site
- Social-democratic party of Finland
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Halonen, Tarja |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | President of Finland |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 24, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kallio, Helsinki |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
