Pekka Sauri, a Greens Party politician who is currently serving as one of four deputy mayors for the City of Helsinki, announced on Facebook and Twitter Thursday that he will stand for the Helsinki Mayor position this year. The new Helsinki City Council will name a new Helsinki Mayor sometime in late 2017, after the municipal elections in the spring.
Former Greens Party chair and MP Anni Sinnemäki, who also currently serves as a Helsinki deputy mayor, has not yet announced if she is interested in the post, and another former Greens Party chair and current MP Pekka Haavisto has also been slated by the party for the position, so it is not certain that Sauri will receive his party’s endorsement. An official announcement from the Greens is expected in early February.
Sauri said in his announcement that he has been striving for years to build a diverse, real-time and two-way-street community in Helsinki with new interaction methods.
“I have around 67,000 followers on Twitter and a large number of Facebook friends. My dream is that Helsinki will become more than just a producer of services and day by day transform into a strong community of inhabitants,” he said.
Greens and NCP lead capital city opinion polls
A recent Taloustutkimus poll suggests that the Greens are now the most popular party in Helsinki, with long-time capital city election leader the National Coalition Party now coming in second.
Two other parties have already named their official candidates for the Helsinki Mayor’s post: the Left Alliance’s Paavo Arhinmäki and the Finns Party’s Mika Raatikainen.
Administrative shake-up in store
In June 2016, the Helsinki City Council approved a major organizational reform that will fundamentally alter the City of Helsinki’s organizational structure.
Starting at the next Council term, which begins on June 2017, Helsinki will be run by a mayor and four deputy mayors who are full-time elected officials. The reform will also do away with the current city departments, replacing them with by four sectors named education, city environment, culture & leisure, and social services & health care.
The change is intended to improve democratic decision-making in the city administration and reflect the outcome of the municipal elections better.