Warm up
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1. Tampere, Finland (CNN) It is the talk of Finland’s coffee shops, its iconic saunas and of newspaper headlines: What are people in this Nordic country to think about our Prime Minister Sanna Marin, after a viral video this month showed her dancing and singing with reckless abandon? Video showed Marin, laughing, cavorting, hips swiveling — having frankly, what seemed to be the time of her life — at what she later told the press was a private party with friends. It’s all in keeping with the “work hard, play harder” image that Marin has cultivated.
2. When she became prime minister in December 2019, Marin was just 34, one of the world’s youngest heads of state. She won over Finns with poise and professionalism that seemed to belie her years. During her three-year tenure, she has managed to steer Finland capably through including the domestic the Covid-19 pandemic response and Moscow’s saber-rattling as Helsinki applied for NATO membership in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
3. Marin has also proved a skilled operator in handling the more mundane aspects of running the country and navigating domestic politics, if opinion polls are to be believed, with poll numbers that have been as high as 80%, although late last year they hovered around the 50% mark.
What do yo know about Finland?
4. She came into office saying that her goal was to help foster a more egalitarian political culture, and has become an object of fascination on the international stage — indeed, Germany’s Bild newspaper called her “the world’s coolest politician.” But the zealousness with which Marin has pursued night life got her into trouble last year, when a photo surfaced of her dancing at a crowded club in the midst of the Covid outbreak, despite having been exposed the previous day to another cabinet minister who had been diagnosed with Covid.
5. Now Finns are able to see with their own eyes the “boisterous” partying — to use the word Marin herself employed to describe her dancing — that the prime minister has become known for. The controversy has led a few critics to question whether the exuberant display was behavior befitting a head of government. But most of the criticism has been of the “who’s minding the store?” variety. Finns have been debating what might have happened had there been a national emergency while their prime minister was off who-knows-where. As with the controversy a couple of years back over her risqué photo spread, women have rushed to show Marin their support online, posting videos of themselves dancing, some with the hashtag #solidaritywithsanna and #istandwithsanna.
6. While not all of us are posting dance videos, “stand with Sanna” seems to be the consensus view among Finns. Most of us are unbothered, many of us even amused, by the uproar. In short, many Finns — so far at least — have her back. Initially, many people thought her time as prime minister would be short-lived. They believed, somewhat dismissively, that the young woman would be unable to hold her own in the rough-and-tumble world of politics, which — even in this relatively forward-thinking country — had historically been dominated by grizzled, gray-haired men. She has proved the critics wrong.
What’s your opinion on this issue?
7. Yes, she is young, compared to the men who have held the post before her. But she is also competent and serious-minded (except perhaps at private parties with cell phone video cameras recording.) In fact, far from condemning her dancing, some people here have come to see her as a role model for work/life balance. She has shown us that politicians can enjoy the ordinary pleasures of life. They can let their hair down a little. And if they can do it, the rest of us can as well.
8. Even though she continues to have public support, it’s hard to tell what the long term impact of will be on Marin’s career. One national poll this week found that just 21% of Finns believe she spends too much time partying, and 42% “strongly agree” the the prime minister should be able to relax and enjoy herself in her free time. But 39% percent of respondents said that the video do not correspond with their image of how the prime minister’s job should be conducted.
9. Marin’s lack of good judgment and naivete has led us to this ridiculous contretemps, which will eventually blow over. But I’m sure she’d much rather be dealing with affairs of government. Instead, she is publicly releasing her drug test results and explaining the intricacies of her social life to the entire world.
