The new President of Finland, Ms Tarja Halonen, may have left behind much of her 1960s leftwing radicalism but one thing is sure: in style she will bring a breath of fresh air from that decade. By comparison, her predecessor, Mr Martti Ahtisaari, and her rival in the presidential election, Mr Esko Aho, seem Victorian in their postures.
In Ms Halonen's case, the informality incorporates feminist impatience with male self-importance. Her gender was a big issue in the election campaign. When her victory was confirmed, many Finnish women expressed excitement and pride in the result. One woman colleague said that only now had women been fully acknowledged as citizens.
Foreign commentators have made much of Ms Halonen being a single mother and living with a partner outside marriage. In urban Finnish terms those facts are unimportant. More heat has been generated by her personal history as a radical supporter of many left-wing campaigns. Some more excitable right-wing businessmen immediately complained about the threat to their wealth-creating energies. Even the possibility of future riots was mentioned.
In the calmer reality of Finnish political life, the new President, as a representative of mainstream Social Democratic principles, is hardly likely to rock the boat. Her gender, however, is again seen as a factor.
The Prime Minister, Mr Paavo Lipponen, who had appointed her as foreign minister, said Finland's first woman president would definitely make a mark on the way the country is run. Mr Lipponen referred to the chauvinist tendencies of the male population.
Ms Halonen's informality may also have something to do with her working-class Helsinki background. Self-importance is mocked in this world. Her friends and supporters in the workingclass districts of the capital were ecstatic after her victory. They expect the President to stick with her egalitarian instincts and concern for the poor. Ms Halonen's friends also described her victory as a victory for a pluralist, pro-European Finland. It is in foreign policy that she has a more important role to play.
The President comes from a tough political background. Having worked as a trade union lawyer, she served as parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, Mr Kalevi Sorsa, in 1974-75. Her role in the Finnish EU presidency last year has been widely praised. She campaigned for more openness in the way the EU is governed. She has also been wary of the EU drifting towards a military alliance, a view not unrelated to her "relatively pacifist" leanings.
As for temperament, Ms Halonen has a warm and open manner, although she is known to be outspoken and sometimes explosive in anger and impatience. Tapani Lausti is a Finnish free-lance journalist based in London. He is the editor of the Finnish Institute Web pages (www.finnish-institute.org.uk).