[imagesource: AP]

It has been an interesting week or so for Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

Footage surfaced recently showing the 36-year-old letting loose at a party with a group of friends, including a few prominent Finnish influencers.

Finfluencers? I’ll let myself out.

This has led to Marin being dubbed the partying prime minister, due in part to the public apology she issued last year after it emerged she had gone to a club after coming into contact with a COVID-19 case.

In light of the recent video, there were Finnish politicians who said Marin should take a drug test, which she voluntarily did and tested negative. Special adviser Iida Vallin said the prime minister’s urine sample had been tested for cocaine, amphetamines, cannabis, and opioids.

Just as that issue was being put to bed, a topless photo of guests at her official residence emerged. To be clear, she isn’t even in the photo, which shows two well-known influencers kissing each other while covering their breasts with a ‘Finland’ sign:

The photo was taken inside the prime minister’s residence in July and widely shared on social media over the past 48 hours. Here’s the BBC:

Ms Marin admitted “the picture is not appropriate” and apologised…

On Monday, Ms Marin said the party at her official residence in Helsinki, Kesaranta, happened after the Ruisrock music festival in July. Finnish media report that the photo was taken in the downstairs toilets used by guests.

“We had sauna, swam and spent time together,” Ms Marin said. “That kind of a picture should not have been taken but otherwise, nothing extraordinary happened at the get-together,” she added.

The 36-year-old has never shied away from admitting she enjoys letting her hair down while not on the clock.

The official Instagram account for the Ruisrock music festival shared this picture back in July:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Ruisrock (@ruisrock)

If she’s doing her job properly, unlike other prime ministers who let their (shockingly unstyled) hair down and father children at every turn, what’s the real problem?

Imagine she cheated on her spouse with a porn star and then paid that porn star hush money? There’s no way you go on to become prime minister or president after something like that.

The Finnish public, in general, has been supportive of Marin. Writing for CNN, Finnish writer and journalist Marja Heinonen outlines why:

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.

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.

With regards to the footage of her partying, and the topless photo, Heinonen says “stand with Sanna” seems to be the consensus view.

That being said, her naivety in believing that these images and footage would remain private when they were shared online worried Heinonen:

If, as a government official, you dance provocatively for the camera, and if those images are shared on an online account numbering nearly 100 people — as was the case with the video in which Marin appeared — you have to assume that the pictures will go public…

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.

It’s a good thing most of us will never go into public office. There are hundreds of social media posts from our past just waiting to be picked apart.

Does anybody else check the Facebook ‘Memories’ section each day and shake their heads at their former selves?

[sources:bbc&cnn]