Analysis: Have Finland 'partygate' videos helped or hurt Sanna Marin?

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20.08.2022 - 19:13

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euronews.com:

Have recent videos of Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin partying with friends helped her or hurt her?

Is she still the world's coolest prime minister, has she disrespected a great office of state, is she unreliable in a crisis, or is she even the victim of a targeted Russian cyber information operation?

You can find all of these opinions - and more - speculated about on social media but the truth is a lot more nuanced, and it helps to understand a bit about Finnish politics and society to put the whole story into context.

So let's try to do that.

First of all, it's important to understand that Finland has a pretty low threshold for what constitutes a "political scandal". How low? Well low enough that the latest "partygate scandal" was roundly mocked on an episode of The Daily Show on Comedy Central on Friday night.

"Finland should be grateful for the scandals they have!" said host Trevor Noah, comparing the coverage of Marin singing and dancing with friends at a private house party, to political scandals in America where the home of former President Donald Trump was recently raided, as FBI agents looked for highly classified documents that might contain nuclear secrets.

To illustrate just how low the bar is set in Finland when it comes to political "scandals", in recent years the media and political opponents have made mountains out of molehills when a pile of firewood was delivered to the home of one former prime minister; when the then-leader of the Greens went to a gay bar in Stockholm during Pride Week; and when another former prime minister was pictured -- gasp -- wearing shorts.

Marin has suffered a never-ending barrage of these "scandals" since taking office as the world's youngest prime minister in December 2019,