“This was not supposed to be a life-threatening trip” – Something unexpected happened on the President’s trip

Content warning. This article has nothing to do with it, but only observations about what happened during the presidency of the republic by Alexander Stubb on a two-day official visit to the Czech Republic.

As an EU correspondent working in Brussels, I decided to follow Stubb’s journey. The hope was to get an interview with the president, because he doesn’t give them out very often. A smaller reason for going on the trip was that I wanted to see with my own eyes if Stubb, who was elected president more than two years ago, has started to get into his head. I thought that something like this might have happened because Stubb, who gained a reputation as Trump’s golf buddy, has received so much international criticism.

Due to my long career as a journalist, I still remember the times when Stubb did not bother to answer Finnish journalists in Brussels, because it was more important for him during his years as a minister to give his comments to the international media and in all languages.

Striving forward was hard for Stubb when he was younger, this is also reflected in one of his nicknames “Aleksanteri Suuri”.

The first sighting of President Stubb in Prague was Monday morning at the Hilton Hotel, when Stubb walked out of the hotel’s breakfast buffet dressed in blue pants and a white collared shirt.

The step was determined and brisk. Soon the president arrived dressed in an elegant dark blue suit and light blue tie and got into a BMW with Finnish flags.

For the first time in my journalistic career, I also got to ride in the president’s motorcade. The rest of the traffic was stopped while we were stuck in a police convoy and occasionally facing red lights, driving towards Prague Castle, where the day’s program, scheduled to the minute, began.

Stubb chatted, shook hands and talked from hour to hour – almost all the time with a smile on his face and looking interested. The seats were changed, the motorcade rolled over, the lunch was praised and the president talked to numerous politicians about important and less important issues.

I heard from a local diplomatic source that regardless of political affiliation, “everyone liked Stubb” and wanted to see him.

The president’s international reputation has spread to ordinary people as well. This is evidenced by the fact that even the hairdresser lady from Prague admired the Finnish president.

I also witnessed from the car window when a young Czech man raised his hand to his cap as the President of Finland passed him.

Also the president of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel seemed to genuinely like Stubbs, who supports common European values. Pavel, who previously served as the chairman of NATO’s military committee, considers Stubb to be one of the most significant figures in European politics.

After three in the afternoon, Stubb’s also had some time For an interview with Kauppalehti. The president was friendly and convincing in terms of content, and there was no hint of the arrogance sometimes observed in the past.

It seems that President Stubb, acting as Commander-in-Chief of NATO country Finland, is now in his comfort zone. There is enough energy, even though the pace of work is hard and the world situation is challenging.

On the way back to the hotel, we were beaten again. Suddenly, the second last car in the convoy hit the brakes at high speed, causing our car to crash into it.

Our scared driver sweated and praised the driving skills of Mersu’s driver, who braked suddenly. The embassy person apologized to those of us on board and said that “this was not supposed to be a life-threatening journey”. It wasn’t, just a small chase that left dents in the cars and a special memory for me to tell the children.

On Monday evening, the president’s program continued in the form of an official dinner, where the media were not allowed.

On Tuesday morning, presidents Stubb and Pavel had time to go on a “some post run” with two athletes before the business program of the official visit began.

Stubb, who spoke at the business forum, was a humorous market man. He told jokes and lobbied with devotion for the know-how of Finnish companies.

The story is already starting to sound syrupy, but also business leaders praised the competition Stubb.

After the event, Stubb showed Pavel pictures of the northern lights from his cell phone and had a nice chat.

Soon, the president had a tougher meeting with the Czech prime minister, who is critical of the EU and has a tight-lipped attitude towards supporting Ukraine. Andrej Babišin with.

I heard afterwards from a meeting source that it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the leaders’ meeting, because it was challenging to find out about Babiš’s real thoughts, but still hardly Babiš Viktor Orbánin similar EU disturbance is coming.

In the afternoon it was Stubb’s Europe speech. In the Prague Castle, I saw one person among the audience of 500 who was not interested in Stubb’s speech. He was a famous Czech elderly senator who fell asleep during the Finnish president’s speech and only woke up when Stubb said “finally” and was about to finish his speech.

After this, the presidents of Finland and the Czech Republic met the students, who were free to ask the presidents whatever they wanted. Stubb answered familiarly and told about his years in Bruges, Belgium, full of love and cramming for exams.

When I asked the students after the event what they thought of Stubb, the answer was familiar: “He is wonderfully open and approachable – we appreciate it a lot”.

However, a couple of young male students said they like it too Riikka from Purra (ps) and his nice Instagram account.