Sanna Marin

Sanna Mirella Marin (born 16 November 1985) is a Finnish politician. Marin was the Prime Minister of Finland from 10 December 2019 to 20 June 2023. She is a member of the Social Democrats. She has been a member of the Parliament of Finland since 2015. She was the Minister of Transport and Communications from 6 June 2019 through December 2019.
After Antti Rinne left his position as prime minister, the Social Democratic Party of Finland selected Marin as its candidate for the new prime minister on 8 December 2019. Taking office at age 34, she is the youngest person to hold the office in Finnish history, as well as the world's second-youngest state leader after Gabriel Boric of Chile.
As prime minister, Marin was in charge of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She called out the human rights abuses of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. With President Sauli Niinisto, she announced that Finland would apply for NATO membership in May 2022. She was also criticized, mainly because of a October 2020 photoshoot and leaked private party videos. In 2022, she was called by an "the icon of progressive leadership" by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The SDP finished third in the 2023 parliamentary election, ending Marin's time as prime minister in June 2023.
Early life
Sanna Mirella Marin was born on 16 November 1985 in Helsinki. Her parents split up when she was very young. The family faced financial problems and Marin's father, Lauri Marin, was an alcoholic. After her biological parents separated, Marin was brought up by her mother and her mother's female partner.
Marin graduated from the Pirkkala High School in 2004 at the age of 19. She joined the Social Democratic Youth in 2006 and was its first vice president from 2010 to 2012. She worked in a bakery and as a cashier while studying. She graduated with a bachelor's and master's degree in Administrative Science from the University of Tampere.
Early political career
Marin's political career began when she was aged 20. She unsuccessfully ran for election to the City Council of Tampere, but was elected in the 2012 elections. She became chairperson of the City Council within months, from 2013 to 2017. In 2017, she was re-elected to the City Council.
Marin was elected second deputy chairperson of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 2014. In 2015, she was elected to the Finnish Parliament as an MP from the electoral district of Pirkanmaa. Four years later, she was re-elected. On 6 June 2019, she became the Minister of Transport and Communications.
On 23 August 2020, Marin was elected chair of the SDP, replacing Antti Rinne.
Prime Minister (2019-2023)
In December 2019, Marin was nominated by the Social Democratic Party to replace Antti Rinne as the Prime Minister of Finland, but Rinne stayed as party leader until June 2020. By a small amount of votes, Marin beat Antti Lindtman to become prime minister. A majority of the ministers in her cabinet are women, 12 out of 19 at the time of the cabinet's creation. She is the third female head of government in Finland, after Anneli Jaatteenmaki and Mari Kiviniemi.
When she was confirmed by Parliament at the age of 34, she became Finland's youngest-ever prime minister, and was the youngest state leader until Sebastian Kurz became Chancellor of Austria again in January 2020.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Marin's cabinet declared a state of emergency in Finland to stop the epidemic in the country. When Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven could not attend a European Council meeting in October 2020, Marin also represented Sweden in the meeting. Marin later asked Lofven to represent Finland at a Council meeting later that month.
In October 2020, Marin took part in a photo shoot for the Finnish magazine Trendi in which she wore a blazer with nothing underneath, causing controversy while her supporters called the critics sexist.
In May 2021, Finnish media reported that Marin and her family were paying about EUR300 per month for groceries with public funds as a part of the Prime Minister's tax-free housing benefits. This was legally questioned if a prime minister was able to do this. Marin had used around 14.000 euro for her own food, which was over the limit of 2500 euro. Marin claimed that she did not know the limit.
In early December 2021, Marin went celebrating in a nightclub in Helsinki hours after being in close contact with Finland's foreign minister who had tested positive for COVID-19, making her exposed to the disease. Two text messages were sent to Marin's government phone saying that she should be quarantined. However, Marin missed the messages because she was not carrying the phone at the time. According to the government instructions, the Prime Minister should always have the governmental phone. She apologized on Facebook and said that she had been told that going out in public was allowed because she was vaccinated. Two complaints about Marin's actions were sent to the Chancellor of Justice. Important members of the coalition party Centre Party said that Marin had lied to them by chaning her reasoning of going out.
In early 2022, Marin announced her support of Finland joining NATO, causing a negative reaction from Russia. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Marin strongly wanted Finland to join NATO and called on several NATO countries to support their membership. On 25 February, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson threatened Finland and Sweden with "military and political consequences" if they tried to join NATO.
On 12 May 2022, ten weeks after the beginning of the invasion, President Sauli Niinisto and Marin both said that "Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay" and that a NATO membership would be good for the country's security. On 15 May, Niinisto and Marin announced that Finland would apply for NATO membership, and on 17 May the Finnish parliament approved the proposal 188-8. She said her country did not want permanent NATO bases or nuclear weapons on its territory. On 31 May, she supported a deal agreed by all European Union leaders to ban more than 90% of Russian oil by the end of the year.
In August 2022, another video showed Marin dancing at another party, which caused controversy because people thought Marin was on drugs while dancing at the party. Marin took a drug test on her own to prove she was not on drugs and on 22 August, the results of the test came out negative for drugs in her system.
In October 2022, Marin apologised to the indigenous Sami people for the problems in the reform of the Sami human rights legislation. The legislation has been proposed for three parliamentary terms without any progress. In November, ministers voted 11-3 to send the legislation to the Finnish Parliament. On 24 February 2023, the constitutional law committee voted 9-7 to suspend work on the bill, preventing the legislation from being passed.
In March 2023, the SDP finished third in the 2023 parliamentary election, and soon acknowledged her defeat.
Personal life
In January 2018, Marin and her fiance, football player Markus Raikkonen, had a daughter, Emma. In August 2020, Marin and Raikkonen were married at the prime minister's official residence, Kesaranta.
Marin said she came from a "rainbow family", as she was raised by same-sex parents. She was the first person in her family to go to a university.
Marin is a vegetarian.
Marin was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women in 2020. That same year, she was chosen by Forbes on the list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women. In 2020 she became a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. In December 2022, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation named Marin as the icon of progressive leadership.