In a 2001 Halonen said that she is worried about the Russian response if NATO approved membership bids by Baltic countries.

Halonen said she approved of the flyers.

The first female to hold the office, Halonen had previously been a member of the parliament from 1979 to 2000 until her election to the presidency.

Halonen is widely known for her interest in human rights issues.

Her mother Lyyli Elina Loimola was a set-dresser and her father Vieno Olavi Halonen worked as a welder.

After the war the couple decided to get a divorce, and in 1950 Lyyli Halonen married her new husband Thure Forss, who worked as an electrician and was very active in the working-class community.

In the second round, Halonen narrowly defeated her opponent with 51. 6 % against 48. 4 % thus becoming Finland's first female President.

On 20 May 2005, Halonen held a press conference in Mäntyniemi where she announced her willingness to run for a second term.

American talk show host Conan O ' Brien made recurring jokes about Halonen on his show, Late Night with Conan O ' Brien, because of his own resemblance to her.

He endorsed Halonen and produced humorous mock campaign ads and attack ads against her opponents.

Early in her political career Halonen represented the far left wing of her former party ( Social Democrat ).

Throughout her political career, Halonen has described herself as supporter of international solidarity.

Halonen and her husband Pentti Arajärvi | Dr. Pentti Arajärvi in 2003.

President Halonen says her interests include art history, the theatre and swimming.

On 26 August 2000, President Halonen married her longtime partner, Dr. Pentti Arajärvi, in a civil ceremony at her official residence, Mäntyniemi, after a relationship of more than fifteen years.

Autti attended the event with Mattila, where they met the President, Tarja Halonen — who was re-elected for a second term on January 29, 2006 — and her husband Pentti Arajävi.

Halonen, the main left-wing candidate and incumbent president, has further indicated that the president's powers should not be increased either, since it would, in her opinion, reduce the degree of democratic decision-making.

President Tarja Halonen was born in Kallio and lived there until her election as president in 2000.

This was reversed in the 2000s, when Tarja Halonen and Erkki Tuomioja made Finland's official policy to resist other EU members ' plans for common defense.

Tarja Kaarina Halonen (; born 24 December 1943 ) was the 11th President of Finland, serving from 2000 to 2012.

Tarja Halonen was born on 24 December 1943 in the district of Kallio which is a traditional working-class area in central Helsinki.

Vieno Halonen was at the frontline and Lyyli Halonen was working in a shoe factory when their daughter was born.

In 1987, Halonen was appointed by Prime Minister Harri Holkeri to be the Minister of Social Affairs and Health in the government, a position she held until 1990.

Halonen was a surprising candidate as she didn't represent many traditional values: She was known as a left-wing social democratic party member, who lived in a domestic partnership, was a single parent and had resigned from the national church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

They faced each other in a runoff on 29 January 2006, where Halonen was re-elected with 51. 8 % of the vote against Mr. Niinistö's 48. 2 %.

During the past 50 years, only once the President has not obeyed the Council of State consensus and Halonen was accused of cronyism.

In September 2008, Halonen was perceived to insult Estonia by saying that the Estonians suffer from " post-Soviet stress condition ".

He was succeeded by the foreign minister Tarja Halonen.

He qualified for the second round runoff as one of the top two candidates in the first round, but was defeated by the incumbent Tarja Halonen with 51. 8 % of the vote against his 48. 2 %.

Pekka Halonen ( 23 September 1865 – 1 December 1933 ) was a painter of Finnish landscapes and people.

He held the position of Minister of Trade and Industry in Lipponen's 2nd government, and became the Minister for Foreign Affairs after Tarja Halonen was elected the President of Finland.

He is the husband of Tarja Halonen, who was the President of Finland between 2000 and 2012.

SDP's winning candidate was Tarja Halonen.

Among Leino's friends were the artist Pekka Halonen and Otto Manninen, who gained fame as a poet and translator.

" Finnish President Tarja Halonen stated, " The Finnish nation lost in Lennart Meri a close and sincere friend and the world, a great statesman who was one of the leading architects of the post-Cold War world.

The first permanent settler inhabitant of Kemijärvi was Paavali Ollinpoika Halonen, who moved, from region of Oulu, from Niskakylä, Utajärvi to Kemijärvi about 1580.

In November 2003, the Simon Wiesenthal Center submitted an official request to Finnish President Tarja Halonen for a full-scale investigation by the Finnish authorities of the prisoner exchange In the subsequent study by Professor Heikki Ylikangas it turned out that about 2000 of the exchanged prisoners joined the Wehrmacht, but among the rest there were about 500 political officers or politically dangerous persons, who most likely perished in concentration camps.

When she entered politics, Halonen stated that these are also the qualities and attributes she respects in people.

It has been questioned whether President Tarja Halonen represented only Finland or the entire EU when she met with President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

However, Halonen allowed Finland to join European Union Battlegroups in 2006 and the NATO Response Force in 2008.

In a cohabitation situation as with Matti Vanhanen's recent second government right-wing government and left-wing President Tarja Halonen, there can be friction between government ministers and the president.

In 2004, Finnish President Tarja Halonen visited Nicaragua where she stated " The Finnish government and Parliament have decided that Nicaragua is one of the main targets of Finnish development aid.

Halonen is a graduate of the University of Helsinki, where she studied law from 1963 to 1968.

Halonen served in the parliament of Finland for six terms, from 1979 to 2000, representing the constituency of Helsinki.

Ineligible to run in the 2012 presidential elections due to term limits, Halonen left office on 1 March 2012.

In 1980 – 81 Halonen served as the chairman of SETA, the main LGBT rights organization in Finland.

Halonen is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.

5-year-old Tarja Halonen in 1948.

In 1974 Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa appointed Halonen as his parliamentary secretary.

Working in the Parliament made Halonen even more interested in politics and she decided to take part in the municipal elections of 1976.

Halonen announced in 1999 that she wished to stand as a candidate for President in the 2000 Presidential elections.