At a packed, dimly lit music venue in Helsinki, an attentive crowd dressed up for a night out sings sweetly along to musicians on stage in front of a kitsch image of a smiling 65-year-old man.
While the atmosphere would suggest fun club night rather than political campaign event, it is one of the last appearances of Pekka Haavisto, the man to whom the night is dedicated, before he runs in one of Finland’s most high-stakes presidential elections in living memory.
The 65-year-old former foreign minister, who is hoping to become the country’s first Green and first gay president, is second in the opinion polls as Finland votes in the first round of the pivotal election on Sunday. But he is facing a growing threat from the right.
For most of the race the fight has centred on Haavisto, who is running as an independent, and former prime minister Alexander Stubb, the frontrunner. But recently, as debates have taken a more domestic turn, it is Jussi Halla-aho – the former leader of the far-right Finns party – who has been grabbing public attention and traction in the polls, where he lies third.
“All our events have been full house,” said volunteer Sonja Raitamäki, 32, running the merch table at the back, where goods include T-shirts with the slogan “huoltoasemilta klubille” (from gas stations to the club). While she thinks the second round will be between Haavisto and Stubb she admitted: “It’s quite tight.”
The trade union worker has been shocked by the last-minute rise of Halla-aho, whose surge has raised fears among liberals that the election’s final two could both be rightwing candidates.
While Haavisto felt good about his campaign’s performance going into the final weekend, he feared the Finns party candidate could get to the next round.
“I am concerned, but now we have to follow the will of the voters,” he told the Observer backstage, where he was joined by musicians, campaign staff and his partner Antonio Flores after addressing supporters.
“Of course it would be quite exceptional having the two most rightwing parties in the second round. It would leave many voters without a candidate. But everything is possible.”
It would also mark another victory for rightwing politics in Finland, with Halla-aho’s party already part of a ruling coalition that also includes Stubb’s centre-right National Coalition party.
The presence of Haavisto, who as foreign minister between 2019 and 2023 under a Social Democrat-led government negotiated Finland’s record fast Nato accession, shows the country’s political choices remain varied, he said.
“Actually, when people said in the beginning, ‘This is very boring, four or five very similar men’, I don’t find any similarities,” he added. “We maybe look like men from the same age category but we have very different experiences, very different stories, very different views. People can really choose between very fundamentally different alternatives.”
Although this election in which there are nine candidates, has seen record early voting, going into the final weekend Haavisto believes many remain undecided. While he has previously warned that Finland must crack down on hate speech against minorities – both as a pressing social issue and a national security issue –he said in other ways he has seen signs of progress during his time on the campaign trail.
“You could see that people could never imagine that gay men could be elected. But this has been changing.”
His club nights have been a big part of his campaign. He invites leading names from Finland’s music scene to perform, followed by a DJ set by Haavisto himself, who goes by the stage name “DJ Pexi”.
He mainly plays his favourite songs from the 60s and 70s. Between tracks, he takes to the microphone, telling his fans crowded around the DJ booth what the songs mean to him.
Friday’s set list included Rivers of Babylon by Boney M, Adam and Eve by Paul Anka, Rikarena’s Era Mentira, and Revolution by the Beatles. Haavisto’s partner told the Observer that his musical taste was “terrible” and the fact people pay to attend the sold-out nights amazes Haavisto – as do the students who dance to his DJ sets. “It has been a successful concept.”
Despite moments of levity, most of his campaigning has centred around addressing the serious security concerns of the Finnish public.
At a recent event in Ivalo, Lapland, near Finland’s most northerly border crossing with Russia, he was asked by one man whether he should sell his house 50km from the border amid heightened tensions.
“These are the types of fears that people are reflecting. And, more generally, ‘Is war coming?’ and ‘What does it mean for Finland?’” said Haavisto.
