Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin holds a information convention in Helsinki on Friday after leaked videos displaying her partying sparked criticism.
Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva/AFP through Getty Images
cover caption
toggle caption
Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva/AFP through Getty Images
Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin holds a information convention in Helsinki on Friday after leaked videos displaying her partying sparked criticism.
Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva/AFP through Getty Images
Finland’s prime minister stated Friday that she has taken a drug take a look at following public backlash to videos that surfaced this week displaying her dancing and singing with her associates.
“I consider these accusations to be very serious, and, though I consider the demand for a drug test unjust, for my own legal protection and to clear up any doubts, I have taken a drug test today, the results of which will come in about a week,” Sanna Marin instructed reporters on Friday.
Objections to her partying and conduct got here after two personal videos had been leaked. In them, Marin will be seen dancing and singing with her associates, who embody Finnish celebrities and Finnish pop star Olavi Uusivirta, the BBC reported.
Marin stated she did know that she was being filmed, the Finnish outlet Yle reported, however added that the videos had been supposed to stay personal.
“I am upset that these videos have become public,” Marin stated. “It was about me having a night out with friends. Partying — even in a boisterous way — dancing and singing.”
The prime minister stated beforehand that she didn’t devour any medicine, and simply had some drinks containing alcohol.
Reactions have been combined
Calls for a drug test got here from members of opposition events. And whereas some have criticized the prime minister for the conduct on social media, others have celebrated it. And it is not the primary time Marin’s after-work conduct has been commented on.
The 36-year-old has been photographed at music festivals in the previous sporting cut-off denim shorts and a leather-based jacket. While some have referred to as into query her professionalism, others have applauded her relatability and her potential to have a work-life stability.
Her time in workplace hasn’t solely been full of partying. Marin was elected to the prime minister place in 2019 and have become Finland’s youngest prime minister ever. She represents the Social Democratic Party and in her time in workplace the nation has gone by means of the worldwide pandemic, handled its neighbor, Russia launching a battle in Ukraine, and most just lately, Finland turned poised to join NATO along with Sweden.
Many have requested how gender is taking part in into the scrutiny
The scrutiny that Marin has been underneath this week has made many ask the query if this conduct and the following reactions could be the identical if a person was in the prime minister place and filmed doing the identical actions.
“There’s a tendency to focus on women’s personal lives, their appearance, and in general, I’d say that compared to men, women are more likely to have to really prove their credentials in terms of being capable politicians,” stated Farida Jalalzai, affiliate dean of world initiatives and engagement at Virginia Tech.
Women are sometimes caught in a lure of having to go above and past what is predicted of different individuals to show that they’re skilled, Jalalzai stated, including that Marin’s gender and age are doubtless taking part in a job in the protection of these videos.
On the opposite hand, males in positions of energy are usually not mentioned as usually in such private methods, Jalalzai stated, leaving ladies to pay the upper value in phrases of the language used to describe them.
“Women have to sort of go out of their way to do even more than a male politician to try to stay out of those types of situations. And it’s like, did [Marin] really do anything wrong if we’re really just talking about dancing?” Jalalzai stated.
“It just hearkens back [to] this time where women’s behavior had a lot to do with the respect that they were given or their families were given in society — and it just seems sort of archaic,” Jalalzai added.