After renewed criticism of her private life, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has defended her right to private life. She is only “human,” Marin said, close to tears, on Wednesday at an event of her Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Lahti, north of Helsinki.
She also sometimes longs for fun, she said, but at the same time emphasized that she had “not missed a single day of work” because of this.
The past week has been “quite difficult,” Marin said. She wishes that people would judge politicians by their work rather than their leisure activities.
Marin only apologized on Tuesday for a photo taken at her headquarters in Helsinki. The image, first published on the online service Tiktok and later shared by Finnish media, shows a Finnish influencer and another woman kissing and covering their bare breasts with a sign that reads “Finland” in English.
“The photo is inappropriate, I apologize for that,” Marin told journalists on Tuesday.
Marin confirmed on Tuesday that the photo was taken at her Kesäranta office in Helsinki in July while she was attending a music festival. Marin said she invited “friends” to her office at the time, who “spent the evening” and “went to the sauna.” A former Miss Finland contestant and now online celebrity first posted the photo with her on her Tiktok user account.
An editorial in the country’s most influential newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, on Tuesday criticized Marin for appearing to have “lost control”. There is a risk that other people could publish pictures from their private lives.
A video was circulated last week showing Marin partying with a group of friends and celebrities. Some of the comments heard in the video were interpreted as an indication of drugs.
Prime Minister Marin had rejected such interpretations and announced a drug test on Friday in order to, according to her own statements, “dispel any suspicion”. The negative result of the test was published on Monday.
