Rovaniemi draws Stubb for fourth visit this year with Spanish royals

Rovaniemi has been President Alexander Stubb’s most frequent domestic destination this year, with a visit alongside Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia marking his fourth trip to the city, Yle reports.

The royal couple’s state visit included a day in Rovaniemi, where they and Stubb visited the Lapland Air Command, the Arktikum science centre and the University of Lapland. The president’s office said Lapland and Arctic issues are of interest to many of Finland’s allies and partners.

At the university, Stubb and King Felipe stressed solidarity among European Union countries. Stubb said the EU had only one border. Felipe said Spain and Finland understood that they shared a border as EU members, despite having different views of the threats they faced.

Rovaniemi was also the setting for Stubb’s two-day regional visit in May with his wife, Suzanne Innes-Stubb. In September, he attended a European Arctic Summit dinner hosted by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo. Earlier in October, he was in the city for a ceremony marking the Finnish Air Force’s receipt of its first new fighter aircraft.

Stubb also visited Rovaniemi in November 2024, his first year as president. He has travelled elsewhere in Lapland, including Inari, Utsjoki and Kemi.

At the end of the royal visit, Spanish exchange students at the University of Lapland met the king and queen and the presidential couple. Lucía González García, a Spanish education student in Rovaniemi, said her family back home was excited about the meeting, adding that people in Spain did not usually get to meet members of the royal family in person.