Congressman Juhana Vartiainen has confirmed in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat that he aims to be the candidate of the National Coalition Party (NCP) for mayor of Helsinki.
Vartiainen had told Yle on Monday that he would consider the matter carefully, because the decision to be a candidate for mayor would have wider implications throughout his career.
The final decision on the party’s candidate will be made at the UN Helsinki District Extraordinary General Meeting next Monday, March 8, as confirmed by the district’s vice chairman of the district to Yle. Risto Rautava in an interview on Monday.
The party has been trying to find a mayoral candidate with the election just over six weeks after the former candidate Kirsi Piha unexpectedly announced his withdrawal from the competition in a blog post on Saturday night.
Yard, a former Member of Parliament and former Member of the European Parliament, had been nominated as a national party candidate in mid-February. He was previously a member of the Helsinki City Council in the period 2004–2008.
Who is Juhana Vartiainen?
Born and raised in Helsinki, Vartiainen studied both in Finland and abroad before starting his career as an economist.
He served as director of the VATT Institute for four years until he was elected to parliament under the NCP flag in the 2015 election with 11,436 votes. Vartiainen retained his seat in the 2019 election, but dropped 8,206 votes.
In addition to the Member of Parliament, he is currently also a member of the Helsinki City Council.
According to the register maintained by the city, Vartiainen has not submitted any proposals to the city council. He was also one of the most absent members of the council last year article (external link in Finnish) written by Helsingin daily newspaper Helsingin Uutiset
Vartiainen was previously a member of the Social Democratic Party from 1975 until he moved his allegiance to the NCP just before the 2015 election.
Source: The Nordic Page