The outcome of the first round of the Finnish Presidential Election has been a triumph for pro-EU political views in the opinion of Ville Pitkänen, a researcher of political science at the University of Turku.
"If we look at the total number of votes cast for Sauli Niinistö, Pekka Haavisto, Paavo Lipponen and Eva Biaudet, we can notice that pro-EU politicians received more support than their eurosceptic counterparts Paavo Väyrynen and Timo Soini."
Pitkänen also discerned uneasy voter mood on Election Day: "There must have been a lot of last-minute speculation on Sunday as to whether Paavo Väyrynen or Pekka Haavisto should advance to the second round."
According to Pitkänen, this election has been full of surprises. "Aside from the Niinistö´s lead, there have been surprises at every turn." Väyrynen was even not predicted to be his party´s candidate: his party had tried to find another candidate to replace him, notes Pitkänen. Haavisto too managed to beat the odds and made it into the second round.
Pitkänen sees both second-round candidates, Haavisto and Niinistö, as rather like-minded candidates: "It´ll be interesting to see how the candidates attempt to stand apart from one another and whether voter concern will focus on the candidates´ personal differences."