Sanna Marin, 34, new Prime Minister of Finland
Sanna Marin: The formerMinister of Transport was elected by the Social Democrat Coalition to replace Antti Rinne, who was released because of her mismanagement of a postal strike. She becomes the youngest leader in the country and one of the youngest in the world.
While the strikes threaten – too – to paralyze the country, Finland changes its head of government. Sanna Marin, 34, was narrowly elected Sunday by the Social Democratic coalition as prime minister with 32 votes, against 29 for the outgoing leader Antti Rinne.
Originally from the industrial city of Tampere, in the south-west of the country, the former Minister of Transport is expected to take an oath in Parliament on Tuesday. It should not lead to a significant political inflection of the social democratic administration, in power since April. (New Prime Minister of Finland)
That Sanna Marin is the third woman to gain access to this post does not even attract comments in the Finnish media. The five parties that make up the ruling coalition are all headed by women. On the other hand, the age of the new Prime Minister is very commented: at 34, she becomes the youngest in this position and one of the youngest leaders in the world.
My party is not in government, but I rejoice that the leaders of the five parties in government are female. Shows that #Finland is a modern and progressive country. The majority of my government was also female. One day gender will not matter in government. Meanwhile pioneers. ? pic.twitter.com/dW8OMEOiqb
— Alexander Stubb (@alexstubb) December 9, 2019
The new leader brushes aside these considerations: “I have never thought about my age or my gender, I think about why I got involved in politics and those things through which we won the trust of the electorate,” she told the press Sunday evening.
“We have a lot of work to do to restore confidence,” she said, however. Sanna Marin takes office in a tense social context: his predecessor Antti Lindtman had to resign last week after several weeks of political crisis related to a plan to lower wages of 700 employees of the Finnish Post, including the Finnish state is a shareholder.
Sana Marin New Prime Minister of Finland
Threat of paralysis
La Poste finally withdrew its project in November after strikes followed, including in other sectors “solidarity” of the movement, for example within the airline Finnair. The government got tangled up when the unions looked at whether or not it had approved wage cuts. In the process, the ruling center-left coalition withdrew its trust in Antti Lindtman, who announced his resignation.
Strikes could, however, continue and paralyze the country as the holidays approach the end of the year. Calls to stop work from Monday have been launched in the sectors of chemicals, wood, and oil, while unions and management can not reach an agreement on working conditions and wages.
