Outrage over politicians like Marin’s partying is ridiculous

Harry Readhead, The Independent

So Sanna Marin, the 36-year-old Finnish PM who just last week was dubbed “the coolest prime minister in the world” by the German tabloid Bild, has been “caught” partying.

In a leaked video made up of several since-deleted Instagram clips, and published by the tabloid Iltalehti, Marin is seen drinking, singing, dancing, hugging her friends, and really just having a good time.

I say “caught”, because people are getting a little bit worked up over this. According to the Finnish media, someone can be heard in the background in one of the clips shouting “the flour gang!” – slang, apparently, for coke or amphetamines. Marin denies that someone shouted this and says that, in any case, she does not know what the term means.

Undeterred, a columnist at Iltalehti said it went “without saying” that a Finnish PM could be present at parties were banned drugs were openly taken. Mikko Karna, an MP for Finland’s Centre Party, said in a tweet that Marin should take a drugs test. This was echoed by Rikka Purra of the Finns Party. Marin shrugged all this off, saying she would happily take a test, but was a bit puzzled that such a thing was necessary. Of course, the puritans also piled in, via Twitter. “Incompetent,” wrote the talk show host Aleksi Valavuori. “Knows nothing”. “Resign”.

Now, a cursory glance at the leaders of other European countries would surely lead anyone to conclude there are worse and more consequential things than partying with your friends, whether or not someone in the background is shouting things. Invading another country, for instance. And that is to assume that Sanna Marin did anything wrong. After all, what is the assumption here? That she should spend all her free time sat in bed, sipping drink and contemplating the miseries of the world? Do get a grip.

The reaction seems so disproportionate that you cannot help but wonder if there is not some other motive for her critics’ anger. There is the political opportunism, of course, which is predictable but unavoidable. But maybe also they are all just a bit disappointed that they were not invited to Sanna Marin’s party. It did look like fun. Maybe they envy her ability to throw shapes with the best of them.

Frankly, it is quite refreshing to see a politician behaving like a human being. While Rishi Sunak claims to enjoy a McDonald’s breakfast wrap that has not been on the menu since 1436, Sanna Marin is showing, and not for the first time, how normal she is, and not by the design of her public relations team. The current controversy is not all that different from the fuss that was made when she was photographed in a blazer and no top for the magazine Trendi. It was described as unbecoming of her office, and something she ought not to have done as the second wave of the pandemic rolled over Finland.

It really does betray a loss of a sense of proportion. It is worth noting, after all, that Sanna Marin, whose mostly female cabinet was once derided as the “lipstick cabinet” and “the spice girls”, won international praise for her handling of the COVID pandemic. She took office three months before it hit, acted quickly, and by April, 85 per cent of the Finnish people said they supported her approach. As of the end of April this year, her government had the five strongest approval ratings since the party barometer, a biannual survey, was launched in Finland in 1991. And of course, she leads the country that in March was crowned happiest in the world for the fifth year in a row.

So if Sanna Marin, or any other politician for that matter, wants to party, I say: let your hair down. Just for God’s sake, don’t do it during a lockdown.