Sanna Marin, the youngest prime minister, spends a year in office

In a few days, Sanna Marin is celebrating her first year as Prime Minister of Finland. And during this celebration of December 10, several stages will be combined. One of them, the one that put her in the sights of her country and outside, that Sanna Marin sets up her cabinet with four women ministers in “sensitive” areas: Interior, Justice, Education and Economy.

Even when he had to replace the latter – Katri Kulmini – in September, he chose another woman. The other is that during this first year, they ranked her among the eight women world leaders who best handled the pandemic during what was, especially in Europe, the first wave of coronavirus. “I don’t think it’s a gender issue; there are countries ruled by men who have also done well. Yes, we should focus more on what countries that have done well have learned, ”replied Sanna Marin in a report with the BBC on this point. “And one of the things we learned in Finland is how important it is to listen to scientists to use all the knowledge that exists; also make bold decisions in situations of uncertainty ”.

A team of women. On the issue of gender in politics, Finland was a little ahead of the rest of its peers. In many ways, the stage was already set for such a coalition. In 1906, it was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote and to stand for parliament; it was not until 1918 that other Western nations reproduced this. And in 1907, 19 women entered Parliament. Likewise, it was not until 2000 that Finland had its first president, Tarja Halonen; and in 2003, a Prime Minister, Anneli Jaatteenmaki.

Regardless, the equality to which the world aspires, also in Finland, continues to be a path under continuous construction. And the life of Sanna Marin until she became the third female Prime Minister of her country and the youngest in its democratic history is one example. And this “Guinness achievement” was complemented by a coalition government with Li Andersson (32) of the Right Alliance; Maria Ohisalo (34), from the Green League; Anna-Maya Henriksson (55), Swedish People’s Party of Finland; and Katri Kulmini (32), from the Center Party, later replaced by Annika Saarikko (37), from the same party.

With mom and her girlfriend. Teenager, Sanna Marin did not think she could occupy a place in politics, nor even that she had an opportunity given her social level. Although she was born in Helsinki, she grew up not there in the Finnish capital but in Pirkkala, a small town very close to Tampere, which is the third largest city in Finland. In his childhood and adolescence, he felt “socially invisible”.

Reason, as he told Menaiset – a Finnish magazine – was not able to speak openly about what his family looked like. His mother had been raised in an orphanage and when he separated from his alcoholic father, he married a woman. “Today, in the 21st century, the debate on rainbow families has opened. As a girl, families like mine were not recognized as real or equal to others. This silence concerning mine was the hardest. The invisibility gave me a feeling of incompetence. But I admit that they didn’t intimidate me much and I didn’t feel “intimidated”. As a girl, I was always very sincere and stubborn. I wouldn’t have taken that very well, ”he explained. “Like many other Finns, my family is full of sad stories,” she wrote on her personal blog in 2016.

Added to this situation, more common today in Finland and other countries, is the fact that Sanna Marin’s mother was financially dependent on “social plans”. That’s why, at age 15, she worked in a bakery, delivered newspapers and was a cashier for high school and college expenses. Although in his country even higher education is free, the state provides loans for students to pay for expenses generated by study, such as moving to the capital, paying rent and living.

His decade won. “I didn’t apply for a student loan because I wasn’t sure I could repay it. If my family had had a higher income, maybe they would have, ”he explained at the time. In this scenario, Marin thought he had no chance of making a political career. “For a long time it seemed like something to people superior to me; politicians and politics were a whole different world from mine, ”he wrote on his blog.

But in five years, her life took a dramatic turn: she was the first in her family to complete high school and college; He graduated with a Master of Science in Administration. And politics entered his life. At the age of 20, he began his military service with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) while in college. In 2007, she was a candidate for mayor of Tampere; he was 22 years old. She lost, but in 2012 she became a councilor and then president of the city council. Popularity allowed her to compete at the national level: in 2014, she was vice-president of the SDP; in 2015, Member of Parliament, Acting Party President and Leader of the Opposition.

Almost four years of career and management went from acting to the party leadership, until his consecration as Prime Minister in December 2019. Start in power, pandemic, crisis management and now second wave. And last August – a holiday season across Europe – he made another personal message: he formalized his long relationship with Markus Raikkonen, his partner and the father of his 2-year-old daughter Emma Amalia into law. .

Identikit

◆ Sanna Marin is 34 and talks about her “rainbow family” because she grew up with her mother and her partner, who is also a woman.

◆ Although education is free in Finland, the state grants funds for the expenses it generates for young people, especially when they go to university. In order not to order one, Sanna worked in a bakery and was a cashier.

◆ When she formed a cabinet with women, she and her ministers were the target of macho memes on the networks.