Mauno Koivisto

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Mauno Koivisto (1993)

Mauno Henrik Koivisto [ ˈmau̯nɔ ˈhɛnrik ˈkɔivistɔ ] (born November 25, 1923 in Turku , † May 12, 2017 in Helsinki ) was a Finnish politician . From 1982 to 1994 he was the ninth President of the Republic of Finland and successor to Urho Kekkonen .

biography

Mauno Koivisto was born in 1923 as the second son of the shipbuilder Juho Koivisto, at the age of 10 he lost his mother Hymni Sofia Eskola. At the age of 16, at the beginning of the Winter War in 1939, he joined the fire department. During the Continuation War he served from 1941 in the Törni infantry unit under the direction of the famous officer Lauri Törni .

After the Second World War he became politically active, joined the Social Democratic Party and worked as a dock worker. In 1949 he organized a left-wing resistance against the communist instigators of a strike who wanted to take over the dock workers' union and thereby indirectly endangered the stability of the government under Karl-August Fagerholm . He later worked as a teacher and met his future wife, Tellervo Kankaanranta. He finished his studies with a Bachelor of Arts in 1953, which was followed three years later with his doctoral thesis on social conditions at the Turku shipyard.

In 1957 he went into banking and later became chairman of the Central Bank of Finland . In 1966 the SDP triumphed and formed a new government under Rafael Paasio . As a recognized economic and financial expert, he was Minister of Finance in Passio's cabinet for the years 1966 to 1968. Meanwhile he witnessed an internal split in the Social Democratic Party. He then tried to improve the party's relationship with the communists and with President Urho Kekkonen . On March 22, 1968, Koivisto succeeded Paasio as Prime Minister for two years .

Mauno Koivisto with his wife on a tour of Dresden with Lord Mayor Wolfgang Berghofer (September 30, 1987)

In the 1970s, Kekkonen considered Koivisto a potential rival and supported Kalevi Sorsa . Koivisto remained in the post of Chairman of the Central Bank of Finland. In 1979 he was elected prime minister for the second time and rejected Kekkonen's requests to resign. When Kekkonen had to give up his office for health reasons on October 26, 1981, Koivisto led the office on a provisional basis, while Kekkonen formally remained president. In the early elections of the electoral college on January 17 and 18, 1982, 144 of the 301 electors were elected from the list of his party SDP (43.1%) with a turnout of 86.8%. The electoral college then elected Koivisto (in the second ballot) as the first social democratic president with 167 votes. The swearing-in took place on January 27th.

During his election campaign, Koivisto distanced himself from those who sympathized with the Soviet Union . As president, he exercised restraint and his leadership style was far less authoritarian than that of his predecessor Kekkonen. On the other hand, he was not particularly fond of journalists and even called them “ lemmings ”. Initially, he continued Kekkonen's "Russia-friendly" foreign policy until the collapse of the Soviet Union . After that, he turned to other ideas and supported accession to the European Union (EU) .

Koivisto's tenure ended on March 1, 1994. He published his autobiography and then became a business journalist. Martti Ahtisaari was his successor .

Koivisto was a member of the Club of Rome and holder of the Order of the White Eagle , the highest decoration of the Republic of Poland .

bibliography

  • Reference marks: Finland in the world. German version Reinhold Dey. Published by Keijo Immonen u. Jaakko Kalela, Kirjayhtymä, Helsinki 1988, ISBN 951-26-3145-8 .
  • Geography and history. Finnish security policy . Edited by Keijo Immonen and Jaakko Kalela. From the Finnish by Klaus Riemann, ECON, Düsseldorf / Vienna / New York / Moscow 1992, ISBN 3-430-15638-6 .
  • Kaksi kautta 1, Muistikuvia ja merkintöjä 1982-1994 (German: "Two terms of office 1: memories and entries"), autobiography part 1, 1994, ISBN 951-26-3947-5
  • Kaksi kautta 2, Historian tekijät (German: "Two terms of office 2: The makers of history"), Autobiography Part 2, 1995, ISBN 951-26-4082-1
  • Liikkeen suunta ( Eng : "The Direction of Movement"), Autobiography Part 3, 1997, ISBN 951-26-4272-7
  • Koulussa yes soa (German: "In school and in war"), Autobiography Part 4, 1998, ISBN 951-26-4384-7

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Presidentti Mauno Koivisto 1923–2017. Website of the President of Finland. Retrieved May 12, 2017.

Web links

Commons : Mauno Koivisto  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Koivisto, Mauno
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koivisto, Mauno Henrik (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Finnish politician and president
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Turku
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 2017
Place of death Helsinki