Mayor of Helsinki Jan Vapaavuori says he leaves politics. Vapaavuori has long been the leader of the Conservative National Coalition Party, serving as a government minister for two terms.
“I will not be a candidate in next spring’s municipal elections,” he told Helsingin Sanomat in an article published early in the morning on Sunday.
Vapaavuori, 55, told the newspaper that he had spent two-thirds of his career in social roles so he could spend the last third doing something different. However, Vapaavuori said he would leave politics and not prepare for any kind of election.
According to the mayor, working in the private sector was the most likely option, but he was also interested in international responsibility or entrepreneurship.
The largest voting campaign in the 2017 election
After losing the offer to become NCP chairman in 2015, Vapaavuori spent two years as vice-president of the European Investment Bank. This was followed by almost three years as Minister of Economic Affairs and four years as Minister of Housing from 2007 onwards.
In 2017, Vapaavuori was appointed mayor of Helsinki after his party won the most seats in the city council in municipal elections. He earned nearly 30,000 votes, the highest number of candidates in the country in that election.
Vapaavuori was a Member of Parliament from 2003 to 2015 and has been a member of the Helsinki City Council since 1997.
As mayor, Vapaavuori has supported controversial proposals, such as the tunnel from Sörnäinen to the West Harbor and the local department of the Guggenheim Museum of Art. As Minister of Economic Affairs, Vapaavuori also caused controversy over his role in the permit for the proposed Fennovoima nuclear power plant.
Regards, The United States returns to the climate agreement
On Sunday, he wrote on Twitter: “Each of us has only one life. I strongly believe that this life will be richer if different things can be done. Until next spring I am fully committed to the cockpit in Helsinki. After that, I do something else. What? I really don’t know yet. “
On Saturday night, Vapaavuori joined most other Finnish politicians to congratulate Joe Biden, who was elected President of the United States, and Kamala Harris, who was elected Vice President.
Writing in English, he called it "victory for democracy, reason and hope!", adding a Finnish tweet: “Only 73 days until the United States rejoins the Paris Climate Agreement. There is now more hope in the world in other ways as well.”
Source: The Nordic Page