Sanna Marin had become a bit of a hero amongst the far left worldwide.
The glamorous figurehead was elected Prime Minister of Finland at the age of 34. In her youth she had been an activist for the Social Youth Democrats, a hard left movement in her country.
During the pandemic as prime minister, Marin declared a state of emergency and instituted some of the harshest lockdown policies in Scandinavia. Compare that to Sweden, for example, which had some of the most laxed lockdown policies in the world.
On the personal side, she became famous for a video showing her partying and dancing suggestively. Most shrugged.
She later became a strong supporter of the Ukraine in their war against Russia, and had been aggressively trying to get Finland to join NATO.
But that historic effort was not to be. Her party, and thereby Marin herself, lost to the center-right Conservatives yesterday.
The National Coalition Party proved to be the victor, with Marin’s party coming in third place. The NCP is the more moderate wing of those who lean right.
But it was a close race. NCP got 21%, while the Finns, the hard right party which has been vocally anti refugee admission, got 20.1%. Marin’s Social Democrats got a razor closed 19.9%.
But Marin took it on the chin and graciously accepted defeat saying, “This is a great day because we did well in this election. This celebration of democracy is always a glorious thing.”
The new PM, Pettero Orpo, had been a consesus building bureaucrat most his life, a conservative but non controversial figure. He was the interior and then finance minister, and most recently deputy Prime Minister. A mild mannered man, Orpo campaigned on the feeling that Marin’s spending was out of control, and taxes needed to be reduced dramatically. He avoided more controversial topics like refugee admittance.
The quiet, ruffle no one strategy paid off, as Marin, who had become an international political celebrity, would be hard to beat. Expect Finland now to be less supportive of the Ukraine and back off their desire to join NATO.
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