[imagesource: Twitter / @eskelinen_antti]

Life in Finland, at least from the outside, appears to be good.

The UN’s latest World Happiness Report lists the Nordic country as the happiest country in the world for the fifth year running.

Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who is one of the world’s youngest leaders, appears to be in pretty good spirits, too.

Leaked footage of the 36-year-old letting loose at a party with a group of friends, dancing and singing to songs by Finnish rapper Petri Nygård and pop singer Antti Tuisku, has caused some consternation in her home country.

Marin, who has been PM since 2019, has yet to publicly respond to the footage, which first emerged yesterday. Here’s NewsAU:

According to the Iltalehti newspaper, several Finnish public figures can be seen in the video…

“Based on the videos, it is not possible to say for sure when and where they were filmed,” the newspaper wrote.

“It looks like the videos were taken in a private apartment. Iltalehti could not reach Marin or her staff on Wednesday evening to comment on the videos. Marin’s partying and social media publicity, which differs from the traditional style of prime minister, has attracted a lot of attention and discussion.”

This footage would be far easier to dismiss if Marin hadn’t been forced to issue a public apology last year after it emerged she had gone to a club after coming into contact with a COVID-19 case.

Her foreign minister had tested positive and Marin said she missed the message saying she needed to isolate because it was sent to her government phone, rather than the personal phone she had on her.

In the new footage, Marin and her friends are definitely letting their hair down:

Finland’s Prime Minister @MarinSanna is in the headlines after a video of her partying was leaked today.

She has previously been criticized for attending too many music festivals & spending too much on partying instead of ruling.

The critics say it’s not fitting for a PM. pic.twitter.com/FbOhdTeEGw

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 17, 2022

One of the most outspoken critics has been talk show host Aleksi Valavuori. He shared a longer video on his Twitter account:

This is the Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin. Some been saying she’s cool… maybe among other teenagers. But a responsible leader for a country in crisis? She is by far the most incompetent PM we ever had. Knows nothing. Please take your leather jacket and resign. Thanks. pic.twitter.com/tHLhdEKEa8

— Aleksi Valavuori (@Valavuori) August 17, 2022

Meanwhile, others have shown support for Marin and said she deserves to let her hair down because she’s a hard worker:

Finnish Prime Minster Sanna Marin proving when you work hard, you can play hard 😎👌🎉 pic.twitter.com/8EjQjDUJPc

— Very Finnish Problems (@VFinnishProbs) August 17, 2022

The most jarring thing for me is the choice of music, followed by the sheer daftness of somebody sharing the footage on social media.

All of this pales in comparison to Boris Johnson and the Partygate scandal, of course. We know BoJo is averse to work, and those parties took place while the people he governed were banned from socialising due to COVID-19 restrictions.

[source:newsau]