Is this the man to replace Juncker? Finnish Eurocrat who once said THIS about Brexit
AN IRONMAN triathlete tipped to replace Jean-Claude Juncker and European Commission President believes Brexit should be scrapped.
Stubb praises Barnier and Davis for 'smooth' negotiations
Alexander Stubb is favourite to succeed Mr Juncker as the next EU chief once his term ends in November 2019.
Ex-Finnish prime minister Mr Stubb - who is married to a Brit - announced his candidacy at Strasbourg's European Parliament this week, with bookies installing him as 3/1 favourite.
He has put himself forward to be the lead candidate of the centre-right EPP political group in the forthcoming European elections.
Mr Stubb, a keen endurance athlete, has compared his campaign to become European Commission President to a triathlon.
But despite his British connections Mr Stubb has made clear his opposition to Brexit - branding the EU divorce a “travesty”.
In June last year, he tweeted: “Brexit negs begin today. Worst outcome: no result. Possible outcome: soft Brexit.
“Likely outcome: hard #Brexit. Best outcome: cancellation.”
The morning after Britain voted to leave the EU on June 23, 2016, Mr Stubb was even more graphic in his opposition to the UK’s decision, tweeting: “Please tell me I’m still sleeping and this is all just a bad nightmare!”
We think it’s a travesty economically, politically and from a security perspective.
Currently vice-president of the European Investment Bank, Mr Stubb has two children with dual UK-Finnish citizenship.
In January, 2018 he warned Britain that Brexit would be conducted on the EU’s terms.
During an interview with Bloomberg, Mr Stubb said: “The difficulty for the U.K. is to understand that when you join the European Union, you don’t join on your own terms, you join on the EU terms.
“And when you leave the European Union, exactly the same thing is true.”
He claimed Britain’s decision to leave the bloc had left the EU “quite sad”.
Mr Stubb added: “We think it’s a travesty economically, politically and from a security perspective.
“So if we were then to give the elements to the British media to say, “Look, they want us out” - all Europeans want to avoid that.
“The eternal optimist in me hopes the UK will not leave or either come back at some stage, but that’s entirely for the Brits to decide.”
Mr Stubb speaks five languages and is an admired academic.