Last fall, Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland, a 36-year-old leather-jacket-wearing regular at rock festivals, vowed that she wanted to “live like a person my age” and “shake up” the highest off…
HELSINKI, Finland — Last fall, Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland, a 36-year-old leather-jacket-wearing regular at rock festivals, vowed that she wanted to “live like a person my age” and “shake up” the highest office in the government.Marin guided her country through the pandemic with one of Europe’s lowest death rates, then traveled to Sweden in her trademark leather jacket to win support for a momentous bid to join NATO in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Lauri Tierala, a former adviser to one of Marin’s predecessors, put it this way: “She has become a symbol of what’s acceptable — and what’s not.”When she took office in 2019, at 34, Marin was among the youngest leaders in the world — more than 20 years younger than her two immediate male predecessors when they entered office — and headed a coalition of five parties, four of them led by women in their 30s. Ten of her ministers are women, nine are men.
“I represent the younger generation,” Marin told the Finnish public broadcaster in October, noting, “It feels sometimes that my mere existence is a provocation to some.” The test came back negative — but the same day, a photograph surfaced of two women exposing their breasts and kissing in the press room of the prime minister’s official residence during another party, rekindling the outrage.
“I know that clip may be extremely confusing to Americans,” comedian Trevor Noah said about one dance video. “Some countries have leaders who don’t suffer from osteoporosis.” Bruce Oreck, a former bodybuilder who was the American ambassador to Finland from 2009 to 2015 and still spends part of the year in the country, said that the United States should take note.
That sentiment was widely shared among young Finns emerging from a row of wooden cabins at a public sauna in Helsinki one recent afternoon to immerse themselves in the Baltic Sea.
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