Political unrest in Finland has led to an historic result, with all five of the parties making up the coalition government led by women — four of them under 35 — and 34-year-old Social Democrat Sanna Marin named the country’s new Prime Minister, The Guardian reported.
Marin will be the world’s youngest sitting Prime Minister.
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Marin replaces Antti Rinne, who resigned after just six months in office when a coalition partner lost confidence in him.
At issue was a two-week strike by postal workers protesting pay cuts. When the airport workers’ union joined the strike in solidarity, Finnair had to cancel almost 300 flights. Rinne stepped down soon after.
Marin will be Finland’s third female prime minister.
As The Guardian reported, Marin was the first in her family to go to university and she was raised by a single mother who later joined a same-sex relationship.
Marin is herself the mother of a 22-month-old.
Prior to her election, Marin served as minister of transportation and communications.
Marin has risen quickly through the ranks in Finnish politics. At 27, she led the city administration for Finland’s third-largest city, Tampere, and was first elected as an MP in 2015.
She’s not the only female rising star in Finnish politics, however.
Former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb sent out compliments to all five party leaders on Twitter.
“My party is not in government, but I rejoice that the leaders of the five parties in government are female,” he wrote.
In addition to Marin, 32-year-old Li Andersson leads the Left Alliance Party, Katri Kulmuni, 32, leads the Centre Party, 34-year-old Maria Ohisalo leads the Green League, and Anna-Maja Henriksson, 55, leads the Swedish People’s Party of Finland.
The obvious questions coming up ahead of Marin’s term as PM are about her age and gender.
However, she says those questions are irrelevant.
“I have never thought about my age or gender,” she said, according to the BBC . “I think of the reasons I got into politics and those things for which we have won the trust of the electorate.”
The coalition government under Marin has agreed to stay the course on its stated goals.
The government is focused on increasing welfare and infrastructure spending as well as its pledge to make the nation carbon-neutral by 2035.
However, even with the coalition remaining committed to those goals, Marin has her work cut out for her. She noted that her government has “a lot of work to do to rebuild trust.”
h/t: The Guardian , BBC
