Leaked videos of Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin at a party sparked a political backlash. The videos stitched together with multiple clips show the PM singing and dancing with friends including Finnish pop celebrities. Marin is 36 years old, the youngest PM in the country’s history, and the youngest current serving PM in the world. According to the Finnish media outlet Yle, Marin defended her personal life saying,
“I have a family life, I have a work life and I have free time to spend with my friends. Pretty much the same as many people my age,”
As the two private videos surfaced, demands for drug testing followed. Finns Party chair Riikka Purra called on Marin to voluntarily take a drug test along with Mikko K?rn? of the Centre Party. Marin admitted to consuming alcohol but denied that she has ever been involved with drug activity. Marin submitted to drug testing on Friday saying,
“I consider these accusations to be very serious, and, though I consider the demand for a drug test unjust, for my own legal protection and to clear up any doubts, I have taken a drug test today, the results of which will come in about a week.”
The results are in. The Finnish government issued a statement (in Finnish) that said no drugs were found in the test according to the BBC. Women started posting clips on social media of themselves dancing and partying with the hashtag #SolidaritywithSanna as a commentary on the social acceptance of… people doing legal activities? Some feminist vibes about women being permitted to let their hair down? It certainly has more understated contexts within Finland’s political scene, with her female cabinet being previously labeled “the spice girls.” As usual, people are dancing on social media in response.
From an American perspective, I find it bizarre that this controversy ever was one. Our country has been plagued by the elicit videos from Hunter Biden’s laptop, Governor Newsom (D-CA) celebrating at French Laundry while breaking his own lockdown rules, and former governor candidate for FL, Andrew Gillum, being found in a hotel room inebriated as another man received emergency medical care for being passed out with presumed methamphetamine at the scene. These kinds of scandals are almost commonplace and receive little media attention.
Given the embarrassing plight of American debauchery, I’d say Finland has it pretty good. America’s dynasty of depravity responds with, “Hold my beer.”
Screenshots from alleged iCloud