Arthur Greene
Finland’s prime minister, 36-year-old Sanna Marin, has come under fire from critics after a video was leaked of her partying with her friends.
We say “friends” but Marin’s said she’s “disappointed” that one of them would leak the video.
She’s also defended her right to a private life (but at the same time insisted that she definitely wasn’t on drugs).
If anything, the party looks a little tame – five or so friends dancing pretty awkwardly in front of a webcam – but still, Marin has been forced to confirm publicly that she’s not a drug-addled alcoholic.
In the clip, apparently taken a few weeks ago, she’s dancing exuberantly at a private party.
Local media has said that someone can be heard shouting “flour gang” in the background Finnish slang for cocaine – but even that sounds like the theme of a five-year-old’s birthday party.
Marin denies that the term was used but at the same time said she had no idea what it meant until the video came out.
The so-called “friends” around her include some of Finland’s top celebrities, including pop singer Alma, two well-known TV and radio hosts and an MP from her party.
All in all, it doesn’t look or sound like a very wild affair. But this is far from Sanna Marin’s first rodeo.
In December, she made a public apology after she danced until 4am in a Helsinki nightclub after coming in contact with someone she knew had tested positive for Covid-19.
But considering Finland has one of the best records when it comes to Covid-19, and Marin was internationally lauded for her response to the pandemic, even this doesn’t seem that bad.
Compare her to the UK’s Boris Johnson, for example. He loved a boozy “flour” pandemic party more than anyone else, and he hasn’t even got a Covid record to let him off the hook.
