The noon ceremony included inspection of an honour guard and an address to the legislature.
Later during the day President Halonen received the diplomatic community, as well as members of the cabinet and other top state officials.
Halonen: Inequality a Serious Problem In her inaugural speech, Halonen cautioned against increasing inequality in Finland. For instance, women in Finland still earn twenty percent less than men. She also said that more jobs are needed. In foreign policy, she pointed out perseverance and consistency as the aims. She said she views Finland’s upcoming role as EU president as particularly challenging. Halonen also said that she supports the government’s goal of increasing funds for development work to 0.7 percent of the GDP by the year 2010. No Big First Term Setbacks Her first term was marked by high popularity ratings, but also by criticism of some of her domestic decisions and her handling of relations with the United States. In PR terms, Halonen's first term did not get off to the best of starts. Her very first official visit, to Chile, meant she was away while this nation marked the 60th anniversary of the end of the Winter War. However, she suffered no major setbacks during the term. A controversial appointment to the board of the Bank of Finland did, however, cause a flurry of criticism which was revived during the last presidential election. One of the most unpleasant events of Halonen's first term was the resignation of Finland's first woman prime minister, Anneli Jäätteenmäki, who stepped down in a scandal over leaks of classified documents. Foreign Affairs to the Fore
Late in her term, foreign affairs came to the fore. Another target of criticism was what was seen as her attempts to be physician to the worlds ills at the expense of relations with the US and Russia.
Relations with the United States were in no way improved by Halonen's address to the UN General Assembly in September 2004, in which she called the war in Iraq illegal. However, Halonen has assured critics that she has a good relationship with both George W. Bush and Vladmir Putin.
Despite this all, Halonen enjoyed high ratings with the public during her first term and also despite a closely-fought election, she is setting out again to regain that popularity.