Väyrynen quits party politics after failure to contest presidential poll

Former Minister and Member of Finnish and European Parliaments Paavo Väyrynen on Thursday announced to retire from party politics following his failure to collect adequate support to content the upcoming Presidential polls scheduled for January 2024.

“I have decided to permanently resign from Keskusta (Suomen Keskusta-Centre Party of Finland),” Väyrynen said in a statement published in his blog.

He, however, said that his supporters would continue the Seven Stars Movement, the platform from where he contested in the presidential election in 2018.

"As per the political programme, the star movement will go with the same political ideology that I have followed during my whole career," said Väyrynen, adding that he would not continue as a member of the movement.

Terming himself still as a relatively young man, the 77-year-old Väyrynen said that he would continue his hotel and restaurant businesses in Keminmaa in Finland and Pärnu in Estonia.

In November, 2028, The Kansalaispuolue (Citizens’ Party) expelled its founder Värynen on the charges of misuse of party fund and misappropriation of election funds.

The Helsinki District Court, however, ruled that the Kansalaispuolue unlawfully expelled Väyrynen.

In February 2016, when Eurosceptic politician Väyrynen was serving as a Keskusta member of European Parliament, announced to form a political party which he later formed under the name of Kansalaispuolue (Citizen’s Party).

In April 2016, he also made public the party emblem designed with a leaping Salmon in a blue-green logo.

Väyrynen served as a lawmaker from 1970 to 1995 and again from 2007 to 2011. He has also held many ministerial portfolios, including that of the foreign minister.

Earlier, Väyrynen contested in the presidential election as the candidate of Keskusta for three times and secured the second position in 1988 and the third in 1994 and in 2012.