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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Anthony France

Sanna Marin: Finland’s partying PM tests negative for drugs

Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin (C) answers journalists’ questions on August 18, 2022 in Kuopio

(Picture: LEHTIKUVA/AFP via Getty Images)

The prime minister of Finland has tested negative for drugs, her office announced Monday.

Sanna Marin, 36, insisted she had “pretty much the same” right to party as anyone after a leaked video showed her cutting a series of exuberant dance moves.

Marin faced claims she was under the influence as she danced “intimately” with several men and sat in the laps of two male acquaintances during a night of drinking and revelry.

She took and paid for the “comprehensive” drug test herself last week, according to the government’s press release.

Marin said after the clip, leaked by a friend, was published: “Never in my life have I used drugs, not even when I was a teenager.”

One opposition politician called on her to resign.

Marin, of the Social Democratic party, replied: “I wish we lived in a society where my word on this could be trusted. But since people want to raise these suspicions, that’s why I’ve taken these tests.”

The politician, one of the world’s youngest heads of government, has long made her normal personal life into an electoral virtue, from playing basketball at her official residence to attending a music festival in a sequined dress.

Marin married Markus Raikkonen, her long-term partner, in 2020.

A proud feminist, she has often openly discussed her personal life, including the difficulties of balancing motherhood, high political office and her friendships.

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