This captures the folly of European parliamentary ‘democracies’.

The only seat in the Finnish government where the people can actually vote for the person directly (after the party selects their choice of candidate), and it’s not important enough by the Center Party chairman (and former PM) to run as a candidate for her party’s nomination.

But then again why should she? Like the TT mentioned in the above, the party after all, chooses the candidate whom it wants to run, not the people, there are no primaries in the Finnish political system, nor anywhere else in Europe for that matter.

All the power is collected within the parliament, giving the PM (who is not directly elected by the people) and the ruling coalition a  far greater measure of political power than the US Congress. But once again, it’s the status quo political machine that controls all the decision making, which leaves the local populace without a true voice in any real policy making.

Ronald Reagan could have never been elected to the highest office in the land if the US had the exact same political system as in Europe. Reagan was a true outsider, even to his own party, not an appendage, like John McCain. The Republican establishment back in 76′ didn’t want Reagan at all, Gerald Ford and Bob Dole was their choice, it took Reagan four more years to convince the average party member to cast a vote for him and not for GWBush Sr., who definitely was the establishment’s favorite.

Such a thing in Finnish politics is unthinkable and could never happen, the status quo established parties have a virtual lock on who they will field as candidates, and the parties enjoy their hold on power, even if it comes at the expense of real representative government.

So that’s why Mari Kiviniemi couldn’t care less about the presidency, the real power is in the parliament and with the parties that control it, not the voter. It’s a type of system that the Founding Fathers of the US totally rejected out of hand, and with good reason, they just had experienced its heavy hand that led to a brutal war of rebellion. KGS

Mari Kiviniemi: opposition policy is more important than the presidential elections

Center Party chairman, Mari Kiviniemi, does not see problems with her party’s presidential candidate layout. Kiviniemi will give a more important focus on opposition politics then on the presidential election. Kiviniemi, reaffirmed on Friday, YLE Morning TV, that she will not seek the party’s presidential nomination. YLE