Finnish PM Sanna Marin defends work record, right to private life
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin delivered an emotional speech on Wednesday, touting her job performance and defending her right to have a private life after leaked videos showed the leader dancing and partying wildly.
“I am also human,” Finnish media quoted Marin as saying with a broken voice and red eyes.
The 36-year-old politician insisted she has always been committed to her job serving the people of Finland.
“I do my job. I learn from this,” Marin told a crowd of supporters in the southern town of Lathi. “This week has not been easy. It has been difficult. But I want to believe that people look at the work we do, not what we do in our free time
Marin’s stirring remarks came a day after she apologized over a topless photo of two influencers locking lips during a party that the high-powered leader had organized at the prime minister’s official summer residence in Helsinki in July.
Marin’s public mea culpa, in which she described the image of the smooching party guests as “not appropriate,” came on the heels of an earlier scandal that erupted after videos were leaked showing Marin wildly dancing and singing with a group of celebrity friends during another private social gathering.
Marin, who was just 34 years old when she was elected into office in 2019, becoming one of the world’s youngest heads of state, defended her actions, saying that all she had done was dance and sing with her friends “in a boisterous way.”
A separate video that was posted by a Finnish tabloid last week appeared to show Marin, who is married with a young child, dancing intimately with a mystery man at a nightclub to the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Got A Feeling.”
The publication Seiska also cited a witness account saying that Marin was seen dancing with three different men and sitting on men’s laps.
The backlash that was sparked by the video recordings led to calls for Marin to voluntarily submit to a drug test, which she passed on Monday, after previously insisting that she had done nothing illegal.
One of Finland’s major newspapers, Helsingin Sanomat, reported that with a general election scheduled next year, frustration is growing among members of the prime minister’s Social Democratic Party.
While no one is talking about pressuring Marin to resign, and she remains popular with a 55% approval rating, some members of her party interviewed by the newspaper were critical of her judgment amid the war in Ukraine and Finland’s pending bid to join NATO.
One party member remarked that Finland still is a relatively conservative country, especially outside the capital region.
People around the world have come to Marin’s defense, and accused her critics of misogyny and hypocrisy, especially in light of a video that emerged this week, showing Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese being cheered on while chugging beer at a Gang of Youths concert.
“Male leader skols beer: ‘what a legend,’” tweeted Tom Zaunmayr, national editor of indigenous Times in Western Australia. “Female leader dances: ‘sack her she’s a heathen?’”
Another commenter, Dr Josie McSkimming, noted: “Nobody’s booing (Albanese)…”
With Post Wires
