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Sanna Marin will be the new Prime Minister of Finland

The council of the Social Democratic Party proposed her as a candidate to replace Antti Rinne as the head of the Government. She is about to become the world's youngest Prime Minister and the leader of a Government run by young women.
Sanna-Marin-by-Jukka-Pekka-Flander
Sanna Marin. Photo: Jukka Pekka Flander.
The Nomad Today
The Nomad Today
December 8, 2019 at 9:57 PM

Sanna Marin, a 34-year-old graduate in Administrative Studies and mother of a child, will be the next Prime Minister of Finland.

Marin was appointed on Sunday by the council of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as a candidate to replace the resigned Antti Rinne as head of the Helsinki Government. If the script is fulfilled, Parliament must approve by majority her candidacy on Tuesday.

Sanna Marin won the vote on the other candidate of the SDP, the Parliamentary Spokesman Antti Lindtman. It was not a comfortable victory: Marin won 32 of the 61 votes cast. However, it is enough for Finland to now boast of having the youngest leader in the world and a government made up of women-led parties or parties whose visible faces are young women.

The SDP will govern in coalition with the Center Party (Keskusta, in Finnish) led by Katri Kulmuni (32), the Green League (Vihreät) of the Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo (34), the Left Alliance (Vasemmistoliitto), headed by Li Andersson (32) and the Swedish People's Party (RKP), led by the not-so-young Anna-Maja Henriksson (55).

Youngest in Finland's history

Marin will be also the youngest Prime Minister in Finland´s history. So far, this honour was held by former Primer Minister Esko Aho, who became the Head of the Government at the age of 36.

Sanna Marin will replace the leader of the SDP Antti Rinne, who presented his resignation last Tuesday to the President of the Republic, Sauli Niinistö, after only 6 months in office. 

A former unionist, the Rinne was accused of misleading the Parliament by saying that he did not know about the plans of the state-owned postal company (Posti) to cut the labour conditions of 700 workers by transferring them under a new collective agreement. His words were later refuted by Posti's managers. This caused his main partner in the Government, the Center Party, to withdraw his trust.

Congratulatory messages

Shortly after hearing the news of Marin's proposal, many Finns celebrated it as is almost always done in these lands: all at once. 

Thus, congratulatory messages reached the new prime minister candidate, both from her party and from her government partners and even from the leader of the True Finns (Perussuomalaiset), Jussi Halla-Aho. 

Perussuomalaiset is the xenophobic and anti-immigration party that heads the opposition in Finland. And according to the latest polls, it is already the country's first political force in intention to vote.

 

Finland Helsinki Prime minister Government Marin Sanna
Sanna Marin will be the new Prime Minister of Finland