In 2019, Sanna Marin rose to the leadership of the Social Democratic Party and became the world's youngest leader and Finland's youngest ever Prime Minister at just 34 years old.
Marin’s childhood could be described as challenging, with her biological parents separating whilst she was still a young girl and her biological father suffering with alcoholism. She was later brought up by her mother and her mother’s female partner.
She made her start in politics aged 20, after affiliating herself with the Social Democratic Youth, the youth organisation of the Social Democratic Party of Finland with a total of 5,000 members. Sanna Marin served as its first director from 2010 to 2012 after joining (SDY) in 2006.
In 2008, Marin decided that she wanted to run for public office to the City Council of Tampere but was unsuccessful, however that did not stop her from running again and was successfully elected in 2012, becoming the Chairwoman of the City Council within months.
She gained much prominence after she shared various clips of her charing contentious meetings with other political leaders and oppositions.
Since 2012, she has been elected into various political positions such as her re-election into the City Council, and becoming the second deputy Chairman 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 and in June 2019, she became the Minister of Transport and Communications.
It cannot be denied that Sanna Marin has had a remarkable and impactful political track record and in December 2019, Marin became Finland’s leader succeeding Antii Rinne.
The outgoing PM was often described as an excellent leader, a label that was questioned following the release of a video which showed Marin dancing, singing and drinking with friends at a private function.
The video soon went viral and sparked much criticism about her leadership and claimed her behaviour was inappropriate and unprofessional for a Prime Minister.
Marin gained millions of support from women around the world using the hashtag #solidaritywithsanna encouraging and applauding her for being herself and that citing that her ability to lead the country had little do with what she did she in her private time.
And of course, she was congratulated and heavily praised for her leadership and decision making during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Finland maintaining relatively low rates of the virus.
Despite being regarded as Finland’s most popular Prime Minister, the Social Democratic Party came in third in the April 2nd elections, denying Marin a shot at a second term. Finland’s main conservative party claimed victory in an extremely tight three-way race in which right-wing populists took second place.
