Sanna Marin: Finnish PM says ‘I’m human’ in emotional speech after partying backlash
Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin gave an emotional speech in defence of her private life after being criticised over a video that showed her dancing at a raucous party.
“I too am human. And I too sometimes long for joy, light and fun among these dark clouds,” Finnish media quoted the 36-year-old leader as saying with a broken voice and red eyes as she addressed a crowd of her political party’s members in the southern Finnish town of Lathi.
The Social Democratic Party leader told members she had never missed a day of work nor “left a single task undone” because of her leisure time.
“I do my job. I learn from this,” Ms Marin said. “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.”
In the video leaked last week, Ms Marin appeared with friends at a private party. Ms Marin said she attended the party in recent weeks, but refused to say exactly where and when.
She has acknowledged that she and her friends celebrated in a “boisterous way” and that alcohol was involved, though she said she was not aware of any drug taking.
On Monday, she said that a drug test she had taken to end speculation about illegation substance use had come back negative. Helsinki police said on Tuesday their preliminary investigation into the video had concluded without finding any grounds to suspect a crime.
Ms Marin was met with another controversy after the publication of a photo that showed two women kissing and posing topless during a party at the official summer residence of Finland’s leader in Helsinki.
She apologised for the image on Tuesday. “I don’t think that picture is appropriate. I think that picture should not have been taken,” she told reporters.
One of the women in the picture, model Sabina Sarkka, also apologised.
Ms Marin told Finnish media that she organised the party at Kesaranta after the Ruisrock music festival in Turku, west of Helsinki, and gave the details of all guests to security at the residence.
One of Finland’s major newspapers, Helsingin Sanomat, reported that the crowd in Lathi was largely sympathetic to the prime minister.
But with a general election scheduled next year, frustration is growing among member’s of the prime minister’s Social Democratic Party.
One party member quoted anonymously by the Sanomat noted that Finland still is a relatively conservative country, especially outside the capital region.
Some members interviewed by the paper were critical of her judgment in the Ukraine war and Finland’s pending bid to join Nato.
