Finland’s former prime minister complained that she seems to be more known for infamous videos of her dancing than for her leadership.
Sanna Marin became Finland’s youngest prime minister at just 34-years-old and quickly became a symbol of a new liberal movement in Europe.
But two years into her term, videos of her gyrating in a lacy black tank top circled the internet and a separate video later emerged of her grinding in a club with a man that wasn’t her husband.
Today, the ex-politician — who recently released a memoir and has 1 million Instagram followers — laments the association with the videos, telling the New York Times she’s fighting to build “a world where you can, yes, dance freely when the day’s work is done.”
The viral videos show Marin unleashing suggestive dance moves while friends cheer her on.
Marin led her country through the COVID-19 pandemic, and guided Finland to join NATO, but the dance moves that tainted her reputation still leaves her bitter.
“That night was, maybe, six hours of my life,” said Marin in the interview. “I was a prime minister for four years.”
Marin blamed the media for the notoriety and claims the uproar had a “layer of misogyny.” At the time she said she took a drug test to quell allegations she had taken cocaine in the video.
“Nobody ever asked a male leader: ‘How can you come to work today and be that professional you, when you yesterday went to a pub with your guy friends?’” she said.
Marin left politics after she was booted from power in just four years. She later divorced her husband and has become a bit of a fashion icon on social media since leaving office.
Now, she works at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change think tank, and has thrown herself into support for Ukraine.
