Oldest leader your country could have.
- Thread starter Gukpard
- Start date
If, by some miracle, Harold Stassen won his last perennial candidate run for president in 1992, he would be almost 86 when he took office.
There was also Rodrigues Alves, who was 69 when he was elected for the second time.
But for other possible candidates:
Borges de Medeiros (1934 - 70)
João Mangabeira (1950 - 70)
Vasco Azevedo Neto (1998 - 82)
Plínio de Arruda Sampaio (2010 - 80)
Eymael (2010 - 71)
Urho Kekkonen certainly could have remained the president until his death at 86, and even longer had he kept on living. So if he does, he could probably win the election in 1988 and remain the president at least to the supple age of 94, at which point the times will have changed too much for him to remain even if he wants to.
Strom Thurmond was President Pro Tempore of the Senate in 2001 and 4th in line for president.
Have Bush, Cheney, and Hastert die on 9/11 but Thurmond survive.
He'll be 99 in 2001 and 101 when he dies in 2003.
Have Bush, Cheney, and Hastert die on 9/11 but Thurmond survive.
He'll be 99 in 2001 and 101 when he dies in 2003.
If Charles Tupper somehow wins in Canada's 1900 federal election (pretty unlikely) he'd be 79 on assuming office and would be 83 by the next election. He was politically active as late as 1912 iOTL so if he can ride the Wheat Boom he could potentially died in office at 94 in 1915.
Juan Ponce Enrile and Imelda Marcos could be good shout-outs for the Philippines, for starters.
Franz Joseph at 86 was the oldest one for us Czechs.
Now, if Habsburgs stayed on the throne, we could get Otto von Habsburg, who managed 99.
Good luck with this topic. but it is going to run dangerously close to the Modern Politics issue.
As the US at least has its oldest ever currently in office at 81. And would be 81 or 82 at the end of his current term. And he could make it to about 86 if re-elected. While. his opponent would be ”only” the second oldest ever if elected at 77 or 78 when inaugurated and could be 81 or 82 at the end of his term. Reagan was 77 when he left office and is the Current 2nd eldest president of the US (only beat out by the current President)
Most US presidents where in their 60s in office, and no president has realky had a chance to be older then the current options. Unless you are talking about someone who was old and didn't get elected but even then i cant think of anyone off hand that would have beat 81.much less the possibility of 86.
In order to not get this topic killed. I suggest we leave it at this for US presidents.
As the US at least has its oldest ever currently in office at 81. And would be 81 or 82 at the end of his current term. And he could make it to about 86 if re-elected. While. his opponent would be ”only” the second oldest ever if elected at 77 or 78 when inaugurated and could be 81 or 82 at the end of his term. Reagan was 77 when he left office and is the Current 2nd eldest president of the US (only beat out by the current President)
Most US presidents where in their 60s in office, and no president has realky had a chance to be older then the current options. Unless you are talking about someone who was old and didn't get elected but even then i cant think of anyone off hand that would have beat 81.much less the possibility of 86.
In order to not get this topic killed. I suggest we leave it at this for US presidents.
I mean, OP has already specified that we shouldn't count examples from 2010 onwards...
Someone who is old that had an early chance was Cordell Hull, he was suggested to replace Roosevelt in 1940 when he was 69
Counting people who were in the line of succession, an ATL version of 9/11 in a world where the GOP had a majority in the Senate and where Bush, Cheney, and Hastert all somehow die in 9/11 could have given us President Strom Thurmond. In 2001.
Urho Kekkonen hardly was going to live any older as he did unless he get much better health. And living until 1990's is really unlikely and he hardly is allowed to stay that long anyway.
I think that Finland had already as old head of state/government as it was possible.
This is between 1900 - 2010 so risk going to current politics is pretty small.
Does 'Leader' include ceremonial heads of state like King of England or President of Germany or is it limited to those who actually wields power, whatever their title?
Yeah, I can't see Kekkonen making it past the scheduled end of his final term in 1984. Of the Finnish presidents, I think the only one who could have topped Kekkonen is Mannerheim, had he staged a coup in an alternate post-Civil War aftermath and ruled until his OTL death in 1951.
Actually...
1. C. G. E. Mannerheim (1919–1951)
2. Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (1951–1981) [owing to the six-year cycle starting from 1951 and not 1944)
3. Paavo Väyrynen (1981–)
Obviously this is more than a bit tongue-in-cheek, but still.
Morarji Desai was 82 when he became Prime minister of India
I am your friend Tonypro btw