Copyright yle
Sanna Marin, who became the world's youngest prime minister in 2019, has written a memoir about her meteoric rise in Finnish politics and how the experience affected her. Her book, Hope in Action: A Memoir About the Courage to Lead, was originally written in English and released on Monday. The memoir looks back at the start of Marin's career in national politics, details her struggles of leading her coalition government through the pandemic and the country joining Nato, and also examines the impacts that living in the heat of the media spotlight had on her personally. Pandemic stress The first national crisis Marin dealt with came in early 2020 — the Covid pandemic. She explained that it was the most challenging period that she faced as PM. She explained that during the first weeks and months of the crisis ministers, civil servants and experts worked non-stop, and that the ordeal took a toll on her own health. She said the stress prompted physical symptoms like burning eyes and a sore throat. Then, she wrote, her stomach started giving her problems to the extent that she started to lose weight. But the most frightening symptom came later on, when she nearly lost her vision for an entire day. She explained that later on she started paying more attention to her health and began jogging and walking in 2021, which helped to relieve the stress. Nato decisions Marin also recounted a seismic shift in Finnish foreign policy. On 24 February 2022, when Russia started its full scale invasion of Ukraine, Marin wrote that she knew what was likely coming — Finland's time on its geopolitical fence was over, and needed to decide whether to join the military alliance. According to the memoir, her biggest surprise as leaders were mulling the Nato question was then-president Sauli Niinistö's assertion that the decision to join the alliance was up to the government. Initially, she explained, her coalition government was divided on the Nato issue. The only government party that favoured joining the alliance was the Swedish People's Party, while the Left Alliance was adamantly opposed to the idea. She recalled a heated discussion with the Left Alliance's chair at the time, (current MEP) Li Andersson, who told Marin that the party's parliamentary group would not even discuss the matter. But, Marin wrote, after things calmed down, she told Andersson that it would be better to join than to stand aside. The Left Alliance complied, paving the way for Finland to join Nato. Media scrutiny After some time in the often-relentless national spotlight, Marin grew increasingly tired of the media scrutiny — particularly regarding her private life. Following her term as prime minister, she was elected as an MP in 2023, when she asked the media on several occasions to stop reporting about her private life, which had been the case for years. Perhaps the biggest media-driven 'scandal' was over a leaked video clip of Marin enthusiastically dancing at a late night party with friends. Before the press saw the video, which, according to Marin, had been circulating among SDP members in the summer of 2022, she knew there would be a major uproar. After the dancing clip went public, there were accusations that Marin had possibly been on drugs. She categorically denied the allegations, and voluntarily took a drug test to prove it. The dancing video was followed by photos and vides that began circulating on social media. Marin did not appear in the images, but she confirmed at the time that they were taken at a party at the PM's residence, Kesäranta, following the Ruisrock music festival. One of the photos shows two scantily clad women kissing, while a sign reading Finland is held up in front of one woman's bare chest. Marin was not in the photo. Leaving politics After her experiences as prime minister — and not long after her re-election as an MP — at the age of 37, Marin unexpectedly announced in September 2023 that she would be stepping down from her duties. Marin explained that she had received an offer from the UK's former PM Tony Blair, to work as a strategic advisor at the Blair Institute for Global Change. At the time, she did not rule out a return to national politics in Finland and did not rule out the possibility in her memoir, either.
