Sanna Marin attacked for social media post at music festival

Former prime minister of Finland Sanna Marin has faced backlash over Instagram photos of her attending a music festival in Helsinki.

After enjoying her “proper summer vacation for the first time in a while”, the 37-year-old was hit with online posts and reports criticising her outfits and “party-loving” behaviour.

Several accounts have posted on social media responding to her photos with sexualised commentary.

“Is the photo a serious political actor or the owner of the popular Only Fans site? The sex acts of Sanna Marin continue,” wrote one person.

Another said Marin was a “disgrace” for “whoring on Instagram” while her ex-husband, who she separated from in May this year, “is at home taking care of the kids”.

Among other sexualised comments, which are too violent to report, Marin has been called a “cocaine addict” and a “degenerate” on X (Twitter).

Some news outlets have reported on the post, dubbing the former PM as a “party girl” in her “revenge tour”, citing her recent divorce and leadership ousting in April as sparking her “glam hot-girl summer”.

Many are reporting on her outfit choice of a bralette and mini skirt in the images she uploaded on social media.

“Heels, miniskirt and bralette: Cries out for sex. Do you recognise it? Shocking politics,” a headline from Italy’s news outlet Libero reads, including a cut-off photograph of just Marin’s legs as the main image.

This is not the first time Marin has been subjected to scrutiny. In 2022, a video of the ex-Finnish PM dancing at a private event was leaked and went viral, sparking extreme criticism from the conservative opposition in Finland.

Opposition party members insisted Marin take a drug test, calling her actions “inappropriate”.

Prominent Finnish TV personality Aleksi Valavuori said Marin was “by far the most incompetent PM we ever had” when the video was leaked.

“Please take your leather jacket and resign. Thanks,” Valavuori wrote in a tweet.

In a survey of 1,275 Finnish people conducted by media company MTV Uutisten last year, almost a third of the respondents thought the video weakened her suitability as the leader of Finland.

Sanna Marin, the world’s youngest female leader

Sanna Marin’s term as the prime minister of Finland has been extremely successful, despite the focus on her private life.

When she took office in 2019 at 34 years old, she became the world’s youngest female world leader. She also became Finland’s youngest ever prime minister.

Her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was widely praised, with Finland maintaining relatively low rates of infection.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amid the conflict ensuing in the region, Marin was vocal in her support for Ukraine and their president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Marin also advocated strongly for Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) throughout her time as Finland’s leader.

Finland became a member of NATO on April 4 2023, the day after she and her Social Democratic Party lost in the general election to the conservative National Coalition Party and nationalist Finns Party.

Marin’s legacy as a female leader sits with the likes of former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern. In a press conference with the two leaders in November 2022, when a journalist asked if the two met because they were “similar in age”, the prime ministers were quick to respond.

“We are meeting because we’re prime ministers,” Marin said.

Ardern replied: “I wonder whether or not anyone ever asked (former US president) Barack Obama and (former New Zealand prime minister) John Key if they met because they were of similar age.

“Because two women meet, it’s not simply because of their gender.”

Other scandals from male leaders

The backlash Marin has received over her social media post, as well as the private video that was leaked last year, is unmatched to the little – if any at all – backlash that her male counterparts have received.

In 2015, after he was ousted as prime minister of Australia, Tony Abbott held an “event” at Parliament House. The following morning, it was revealed an Italian marble coffee table had been smashed.

Parliamentary officials understood the table could have been broken as a result of “a person standing or dancing upon it”.

Tony Abbott took responsibility for the table and offered to pay for the damage. He remained in politics for another four years and continues to be in the Australian public eye.

Italy’s most scandalous prime minister, the late Silvio Berlusconi, was notorious for hosting “bunga bunga” parties, referring to a lap dance competition where Berlusconi would select the winner and award them with a night sleeping with him. The parties involved underage girls.

After serving as prime minister in four governments and a total of nine years between 1994-2011, Berlusconi was found guilty of paying for sex with a minor and abusing his power in 2013.

His sentence to seven years in prison was overturned a year later.

There is a nightclub in London, UK, named Bunga Bunga. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, former UK prime minister Boris Johnson was involved in a “partygate” scandal, accused of holding several parties in 2020 and 2021 for fellow ministers. while the rest of the country were living in strict lockdown conditions.

Although initially claiming all COVID-19 social distancing measured were “following completely” at the PM’s residence at 10 Downing St, it was revealed he had invited more than 100 ministers via email in May 2020 to “socially distanced drinks in the No. 10 garden… and bring your own booze!”

Despite police issuing more than 120 fines to the public servants who attended the event, which was outlawed during the pandemic, Johnson survived a confidence vote of his conservative party in June 2022.

Boris Johnson stepped down as prime minister the month after. However, by October the same year, after significant political turbulence in the UK, he considered running for office again.

According to The Guardian, Johnson felt it was in the “national interest” for him to return to the role.