Finland: The Finnish far-right leader has announced that he is leaving office and will not run for re-election

Madrid, 21 (European Press)

Finland’s far-right leader, Jussi Halla-aho, announced on Monday that he will not run for re-election to head the formation scheduled this summer, after four years at the helm of the real Finnish party, the second largest. The choice was voted on by the former parliamentarians of 2019.

“Four years ago, I said that it is not good for a party leader to hold on tightly to office or to feel comfortable in office for too long,” Halla-aho said in a speech announcing he would not be a candidate for Congress. Which the party plans to hold in August in Seinagoki.

“Personal ambition or desire for power are not bad things in themselves, but they should not be the determining factors when we make decisions. A party is not an end in itself, but the best means we have to advance our goals socially.”, he explained.

Hala-aho emphasized that the decision was not taken “lightly,” but that it was part of “long and deep thought,” and although he would not aspire to lead the party, he would remain a member of Parliament, he said. . Yle series.

Regarding his potential successor, Halla-ah emphasized that he did not know who he would introduce himself and hoped to meet the candidates “with the same interest as everyone else”. In turn, he stressed that he would not take sides with any of them.

After learning the news, True Finns Parliamentary Group Chairman Phil Tavio thanked Halla-aho for the work of these four years and celebrated that this decision is a new opportunity for training, as being a “popular democratic movement”, the presidency “should be able to rotate”.

He was elected in 2017 and Halla-aho was re-elected in 2019, months after the party managed to be the second choice among Finns in that year’s parliamentary election in April, losing about 6,800 votes behind the Social Democratic Party (SDP), But ahead of the other conservative National Coalition Party (KOK).