Sanna Marin party scandal: Finland PM has women posting dancing videos – NBC News

A world leader with a penchant for partying is nothing new.

But Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has found herself under fire after footage of the 36-year-old singing and dancing with celebrities was leaked to the local press last week.

The public fallout from the video, and a subsequent picture that emerged of topless influencers partying at her official residence, has led Marin to take a drug test and apologize. It’s also fueled a social media trend that highlights a debate over what many expect of their leaders — especially when they’re female.

Finland has a strong track record of gender parity in politics and consistently ranks amongst the highest in the European Union’s gender equality index. Indeed, Marin heads a governing coalition of five parties, all of which are led by women.

But opposition voices in the Nordic country have accused the center-left leader of lacking judgment.

“She is now surrounded by people who are just taking advantage of her,” Tiina Lokka of the conservative Finnish podcast Monokulttuuri FM told NBC News. 

“They don’t care about her but only want to make social media posts about partying with the PM, and they don’t care about the damage it causes to her. But it’s the PM’s bad judgment in the end,” she added.

Marin, who became the world’s youngest serving government leader when she took power in 2019, has made no secret of her enjoyment of leisure time and has stood by that approach despite the recent backlash.

She gave a tearful speech during a meeting of her Social Democratic Party in the southern city of Lahti on Wednesday, asking to be judged for her work and not what she chooses to do in her free time.

“I am also human,” a red-eyed Marin was reported as saying by Finnish media, speaking with a broken voice. She added that she had never failed to attend to a single work task because she took time off. “I do my job. I learn from this,” she reportedly said.

“But I want to believe that people look at the work we do, not what we do in our free time.”