Sanna Marin

About

Sanna Marin is the Prime Minister of Finland, serving in that position since 2019, and leader of the Social Democratic Party. She is one of the youngest world leaders and is widely admired for her handling of a variety of crises. Marin has come under criticism by some and become globally famous for repeated instances where she has been recorded acting boisterous at parties and at nightclubs with celebrity friends. While some consider these instances controversies, others argue they're insignificant, which has led to viral debates and memes referencing Marin online.

Career

Sanna Marin grew up just outside Tampere in the western part of Finland, raised by her mother and her mother’s same-sex partner.^[1] She was the first person in her family to attend university.^[2] In 2006, while working as a cashier at a bakery, she became involved with local politics in the Social Democratic Party and eventually won a seat on the Tampere city council in 2012. Marin became the council’s chair and then won a parliament seat in 2015. In 2017, she became deputy leader of her party, and in 2019 was named Minister of Transport and Communications. In December of that year, Prime Minister Antti Rinne stepped down over a crisis in the government and Marin, one of the more left-leaning members of the party, replaced him.

During her tenure as Prime Minister, Marin notably pushed for Finland to join NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Finland and its neighbor Sweden have both maintained a policy of non-alignment for years, reluctant to join the alliance for fear of upsetting Russia. Finland and Sweden’s memberships are currently awaiting ratification by NATO members, but the Finns participated in military exercises with the American military in the summer of 2022.^[3]

Online History

Sanna Marin has maintained a Twitter profile since January 2013 under the handle @MarinSanna, where she frequently posts images of various political events and other happenings revolving around her position in the Finnish government (example post shown below).^[4]

Thank you #Estonia for a warm reception today. I thank my colleague ratasjuri</a> for good discussions. I also had a pleasure to make a courtesy visit to President <a href="https://twitter.com/KerstiKaljulaid?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">KerstiKaljulaid. I appreciate our countries’ close relations. We share many values and interests. pic.twitter.com/KMrBPUVjxG

— Sanna Marin (@MarinSanna) January 10, 2020

2021 Catgirl Allegations

Posters on Ylilauta, a Finnish version of 4chan, reportedly attempted to troll the English language press into believing the Prime Minister herself was responsible for a meme they created about her being a catgirl. A viral tweet by @Synthimers, from December 8th, 2021, accused Marin of making the catgirl edits herself and received almost 6,000 likes over the course of several months.^[11]

The catgirl edits allegations are part of a larger meme trend in which Finnish social media users accuse their young and hip Prime Minister of creating memes and edits that they themselves created, including this one which showed her wearing “special pants.”^[12]

2021 Coronavirus Nightclub Scandal

In December 2021, Sanna Marin reportedly went to nightclubs in Helsinki after missing a notification on her work phone instructing her to self-isolate after having close contact with someone who had caught COVID-19. The Prime Minister at first defended her judgment, but later posted on Facebook saying it was a mistake to go out until four in the morning and not bring her work phone (shown below).^[10]

2022 Private Party Video Leak

Video footage of Sanna Marin partying with friends leaked in August 2022, which rapidly spread online as it was widely discussed on social media and reported on by various media outlets (seen below).^[5] Although it’s unknown when exactly the footage was taken, it is reportedly from a private residence and features Marin dancing and singing with a number of famous Finns, including Instagram influencer Janita Autio.^[13]

In response to the controversy around the video, Marin then took a drug test which came back negative.^[6] Footage from the same night also showed Marin, who is married with a child, dancing intimately with unknown men at a club.^[8]

After the viral video of Marin spread online, the clip and ensuing controversy sparked widespread social media reactions, with many defending her actions calling them "normal" and others criticizing her as a viral debate ensued. Another common sentiment in August 2022 online regarded Marin being a "cool" political leader as opposed to the representatives in other nations being boring or old. Tweets, such as one from Twitter user @vanillatary^[7] on August 17th, 2022, that received almost 94,000 likes (shown below), argued that Marin was in trouble for being “too cool and hot.”

A photo of two influencers kissing topless and covering their breasts with a placard reading “Finland,” reportedly taken during a party at Marin’s house, was published online on August 22nd, 2022, and received much attention as well.^[9]

#SolidarityWithSanna

Following the backlash to Marin's partying, female supporters around the world shared videos of themselves dancing and celebrating on social media, hash tagging the videos #SolidarityWithSanna. Many viewed the criticism Marin faced as evidence of a double standard towards women in power, in which they are criticized for behavior that men aren't criticized for. The trend was widely covered: a video of women dancing in support of Marin (seen below) was posted on Twitter by BBC reporter Megha Mohan (@megamohan) on August 20th, 2022 and received almost 92,000 likes in five days.

Prominent people, including Australian MP Fiona Patten, participated in the trend, posting a picture of herself dancing on August 21st, 2022 which received almost 3,000 likes in four days.^[15]

Search Interest

External References