Alexander Stubb

Alexander Stubb in 2024

Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb (born 1 April 1968 in Helsinki) is a Finnish politician and the current President of Finland. He was Prime Minister 2014–2015, Minister for Foreign Affairs 2008–2011 and a Member of the European Parliament with the European People's Party (EPP) 2004–2008.

Quotes

• I had always regarded language as more a question of utility than identity. Therefore, I promptly noted that all the (EU) meetings should be conducted in English and French. My older colleagues laughed. Later I understood why. On the second day of the Finnish presidency (of the EU) a German delegation refused to participate in an informal ministerial meeting because no German interpretation had been arranged.
  • Alexander Stubb, The naked truth and other stories about Finns and Europeans, WSOY 2009 p 13, 31.

• Call me the “stan” man. Or have you ever been to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kirghizia or Kazakhstan. Give it eight weeks and I will have done them all.
  • Alexander Stubb, The naked truth and other stories about Finns and Europeans, WSOY 2009 p 88.

• (On same-sex marriage) It’s a question of human rights, gender equality and equality.

• We’re in a mess but we should put things into perspective: The EU is constant crisis management. You move from one crisis to the other and, at the end of the day, it’s just a question of the size of the crisis and who gets hit the hardest. I have always believed the EU advances in three-phases: Phase no. 1 is crisis, phase no. 2 is chaos and phase no. 3 is sub-optimal solution, and that’s very much the nature of the beast.
  • Alexander Stubb, Politico, December 26, 2016