Sanna Marin took office last week as Finland’s prime minister, making her the youngest government leader in the world. The newly sworn-in official is also leading a coalition government with four other political parties, all led by women.
While the world is just hearing her name, the 34-year-old official has been a woman to watch in Finland’s Social Democratic Party since entering parliament in 2015, The New York Times reported. She became popular as head of the Tampere City Council when YouTube videos of her leading meetings gained national attention. Martin replaced Antti Rinne, who resigned as prime minister last week, after being accused of misleading the country’s parliament.
“She doesn’t come out of nowhere,” said Johanna Kantola, a professor of gender studies at Finland’s Tampere University. “And she is quite well-liked.” Marin is said to be taking leadership during a polarized and volatile time in Finnish politics. Yet the young leader is moving toward progress by heading a government not only led by women but with three women who, like the prime minister, are younger than 35.
“My thoughts have been in the proceedings and I have not followed the international and national media coverage,” Marin told reporters after being sworn in. “We have promised change. Now we need action. I believe that trust will return through action.”
Marin is considered a left-leaning leader with social welfare, climate change, and equality heading her agenda. She hopes to build a better society in Finland and took to Twitter last week to address her thoughts regarding her inauguration.
“Finland will not be finished in four years, but it can get better,” Marin wrote in the post. “That’s what we’re working on. I want to build a society where every child can become anything and every person can live and grow in dignity.”
While many believe this role was made for Marin and were not surprised she was elected, Marin herself once thought politics were out of reach, she told Me Naiset, a Finnish magazine.
“When I was in high school, I felt that the people in politics were quite different and came from different backgrounds than me,” she said.
Marin’s parents were separated when she was a child and she was raised by two women: her mother and her mother’s partner. She told the magazine of how her “rainbow family” dynamic shaped her political life. However, Marin also spoke of how she was often silenced in speaking of her family. “That was something that couldn’t be discussed,” she told Me Naiset. “It is only now in the 21st century that the debate about rainbow families has begun to be fairly open.”
In an interview with Italehti, another Finnish media company, Marin said the “culture of silence related to family” caused her anxiety as she grew up in a society not open to diversity and different types of families.
“For me, human rights and equality of people have never been questions of opinion but the basis of my moral conception,” Marin said in a statement on her website. “I joined politics because I want to influence how society sees its citizens and their rights.”