At 34, Finland’s Sanna Marin has been elected to become the Prime Minister of Finland, becoming the youngest head of state of the Scandinavian nation and the youngest serving Prime Minister in the world.
Born in 1985, Marin will be the third woman Prime Minister of Finland.
The former transportation minister was selected by the Social Democratic Party after the then incumbent Prime Minister Antti Rinne quit after a party in the coalition government said that it had lost confidence in him following how he handled a postal strike.
She is expected to be sworn in later this week.
Brushing off questions about her age, she said, “I have never thought about my age or gender, I think of the reasons I got into politics and those things for which we have won the trust of the electorate.”
Interestingly, the four other parties in Finland’s coalition government are also led by women: the Left Alliance is led by Li Anderson, 32; the Green League is led by Maria Ohisalo, 34; the Centre Party is led by Katri Kulmuni, 32; and Anna-Maja Henriksson, 55, is head of the Swedish People’s party.
Finland’s government is now led by these five party leaders. #newgeneration pic.twitter.com/vis0qB9tO8
— Tuomas Niskakangas (@TNiskakangas) December 8, 2019
After she is sworn in, she will become the youngest sitting head of state of any nation in the world. The premier of Ukraine Oleksiy Honcharuk is 35 whereas the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Arden is 39.
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