Sanna Marin: why Finland’s PM is facing calls to step down

Critics of Finland’s prime minister are calling for her to resign after a source told a Finnish tabloid that they had seen her dance “intimately” with several men in a Helsinki nightclub.

The allegations were published by the Seiska newspaper days after videos emerged that showed Sanna Marin and a group of friends partying in early August.

The 36-year-old leader, who is married and has a four-year-old daughter, has found herself in “trouble” over her “high jinks” in the past, but this latest incident “has been the most divisive episode yet”, said The Times.

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Some are questioning “whether such behaviour is in keeping with the dignity expected of a prime minister”, said the paper.

A not-so-private party

Videos leaked to the media and published this week show the Finnish PM dancing with friends “in a private setting”, with Marin seen “posing” and “singing toward the camera”, said CNN.

“These videos are private and filmed in a private space,” Marin told reporters on Thursday. “I resent that these became known to the public.” Marin added that the group partied “in a boisterous way”, and that although she had consumed alcohol she was not aware that drugs were taken at the event.

At one point, Marin is filmed yelling “jauhojengi”, a slang term for cocaine. Opposition minister Mikko Kärnä tweeted that “it would be wise” for Marin to take a drugs test.

But Sieska’s report today “added fuel to the fire” when it detailed that after the private gathering Marin and her friends had “subsequently moved on” and danced in “a glitzy nightclub, restaurant and cocktail bar” in the capital city “until at least 4.30am”, said The Times.

A source told the newspaper that the PM “sat on the laps of two different men” and that one man “held her gently by the arm”. The witness said Marin “was behaving like a single woman in her twenties. It was hard to believe she was married.”

The newspaper also claimed that an audio recording taken on the night captured a bystander saying “oh my god, she’s in a shocking state”, said The Times.

Track record

“It’s not the first time that Marin’s private life has become politicized in Finland,” said CNN. Last year she publicly apologised after being photographed in a nightclub “hours after her foreign minister had tested positive [for Covid]”, said the BBC.

Marin was “initially told she did not need to isolate”, but “later missed a text” on her work phone advising her to do so, said the broadcaster. The PM said she had left her phone at home before going on the night out.

On seeing the text the following day, Marin “urgently sought a Covid test”, which returned a negative result.

“I did wrong. I should have considered the situation more carefully,” she said at the time. But the PM defended her lifestyle, adding: “I won’t change the way I behave. Of course, I have to be careful what I say because it can be represented as the whole government, but I’m still a person.”

Will she resign?

Marin “has long made her comparatively normal personal life into an electoral virtue, from playing basketball with a television reporter at her official residence to posing for pictures in a cheap sequined dress at a recent music festival”, said The Times.

“Opinion on her night out remains split,” said The Times. Some Finnish newspapers have been “sympathetic” in their editorials, claiming Marin was “within her rights to blow off steam”. The Telegraph’s Judith Woods was in agreement, giving “three cheers” to the PM and arguing that she should be allowed to enjoy herself by “tripping the light fantastic”.

The i news site’s Rebecca Reid thanked Marin for showing “you can have fun and still be good at your job”. She said that after “decades of well-behaved men” claiming “their hobbies are spending time with their children and recycling” until it later transpired they “have enjoyed niche fetishes or financial malpractice at the weekends”, she’d “rather have the Fin who does shots in charge than a suit-wearing teetotaller”.

But critics say that with Finland “on the brink” of joining Nato, Marin’s behaviour raises questions about “her judgement and her regard for national security”, said The Times.

Finish tabloid Iltalehiti pointed out that the ministers’ handbook requires individuals to “behave properly, appropriately and in accordance with general propriety requirements even outside of their official duties”. Marin’s office is yet to respond to the latest reports.