In defense of Sanna Marin, Finland’s partying PM

Party politics is done somewhat differently in Finland. While Boris Johnson was hounded out in Britain for some miserable looking cake and wine, over in Helsinki, his counterpart finds herself in hot water for simply having too much (seemingly legal) fun.

Sanna Marin, the country’s thirty-six-year-old prime minister, is now facing criticism after a video of her partying with friends was leaked online. It features the Social Democrat leader throwing shapes to music with various Finnish artists, TV presenters and Instagram influencers — and all seems a fairly innocuous affair.

Not so for her critics. Talk show host Aleksi Valavuori led the charge, sneering at the suggestion that she is “a responsible leader for a country in crisis.” He dubbed her “the most incompetent PM we ever had” and suggested she should “take your leather jacket and resign.”

Local social media chatter suggested that some Marin’s fellow ravers in the background were yelling “jauhojengi” or “flour gang,” an allusion to cocaine.

Marin’s coalition partner Mikko Kärnä MP urged his colleague to take a drug test and publicly release the results.

At a press conference today, Marin denied that she had used illicit substances. According to Politico:

“I have danced, sung, celebrated, done legal things,” the prime minister said. Marin added that she was not drinking heavily.

She also hit out at the leaker. “I trusted that since the videos are private and published at a private event, they would not be published,” Marin said. “It feels bad that they have been published.”

It’s not the first time that Marin has been criticized for being a party animal. She’s previously faced jibes over her love of festivals and last December made headlines worldwide after she forgot to take her prime ministerial phone out when she went partying in the pandemic. The device is supposed to be kept on her at all times and meant she missed a phone call from her security team warning her that she had been exposed to someone Covid positive.

Cockburn wonders: if we’re serious about wanting more young people in elected office, should we try and be slightly less scandalized when one of those young people behaves like a young person? Besides, imagine this scene playing out in America: the only drugs on offer at a rager with Biden, Schumer and Pelosi would be statins and warfarin.

Talk about putting the “fun” in “fundamental killjoys.” For the sake of all us anti-puritans, let’s just hope she isn’t Finnished.

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.