‘DEMOCRACY HAS SPOKEN’

Finland’s Partying PM Defeated in Dead-Heat Election

Sanna Marin became the world’s youngest prime minister when she ascended to lead her party in 2019, but drew criticism for her government’s financial policies and her social life.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin conceded a narrow defeat after her Social Democratic Party was pushed into third place on Sunday in a neck-and-neck parliamentary election. With 99.4 percent of votes counted, the conservative National Coalition Party was on track to grab 48 seats with 20.7 percent of the vote. Its leader, Petteri Orpo, is presumably in line to become the next prime minister if he can successfully negotiate the formation of a government with either the SDP or the populist, anti-immigration Finns Party, which claimed second place in the election. “Democracy has spoken, the Finnish people have cast their vote, and the celebration of democracy is always a wonderful thing,” Marin said in a speech congratulating the election’s winners. The 37-year-old became the world’s youngest leader and a rock star on the left when she entered the political fray in 2019. Her poll numbers remain high, having won praise for navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and the NATO membership process. But the prime minister was forced to apologize and take a drug test after video emerged of her dancing and drinking at a party last year, a controversy that supporters said was mired in sexism.