Sanna Marin: The prime minister who was reproached for having too much fun

BarcelonaIn 2019, Sanna Marin was 34 years old when she became prime minister of Finland. She immediately gained unusual popularity for a Finnish head of government. But she was the youngest prime minister in the world, and moreover, she was a woman. During her first months in office, the social democrat had to lead the response to the covid pandemic. And then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that in Finland was experienced as a threat from the past that was reawakening. The war caused a historic paradigm shift: Finland abandoned its policy of non-alignment and joined NATO.

But the biggest criticisms she received were not for her political leadership, but for personal matters. In 2021, she was criticized for going to a nightclub after having been exposed to the coronavirus, and in the summer of the following year, a scandal erupted when a video was leaked showing her at a party with friends at her official residence. Critics called her behavior unworthy, but these reproaches were also labeled as sexist. "I am human. And sometimes I also miss joy, light, and fun," she justified herself. The backlash against Marin caused many women to empathize with her and post videos of themselves dancing on social media.

After her party failed to secure enough support to form a government in the subsequent elections, Marin left politics to work at the Tony Blair Institute as an advisor. "At the moment I am not looking for any political position," she said in an interview at the end of last year, but she did not rule out returning to the front line in the future.