Sanna Marin Wiki, Biography
Sanna Marin (born 16 November 1985) is a Finnish politician who has been serving as the Prime Minister of Finland since 2019. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP), she has been a Member of Parliament since 2015.
Following Antti Rinne’s resignation in the wake of the postal strike controversy, Marin was selected as Prime Minister on 8 December 2019. Taking office at the age of 34, she is the youngest person to hold the office in Finnish history, as well as the world’s fourth-youngest state leader after Dritan Abazović of Montenegro, Gabriel Boric of Chile and Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso.
Sanna Mirella Marin was born on 16 November 1985 in Helsinki. She also lived in Espoo and Pirkkala before moving to Tampere. Her parents separated when she was very young; the family faced financial problems and Marin’s father, Lauri Marin, struggled with alcoholism. After her biological parents separated, Marin was brought up by her mother and her mother’s female partner.
Marin graduated from the Pirkkala High School (Pirkkalan Yhteislukio) in 2004 at the age of 19. She worked in a bakery and as a cashier while studying (2007-2017), graduating with a bachelor’s (2012) and master’s (2017) degrees in Administrative Science from the University of Tampere.
Marin’s political career was described by the BBC as “beginning at the age of 20”, in the years following her high school graduation and beginning her affiliation with the Social Democratic Youth. Marin joined the Social Democratic Youth in 2006 and served as its first vice president from 2010 to 2012.
In 2008, she unsuccessfully ran for election to the City Council of Tampere, but stood again and was elected in the 2012 elections. She became chairwoman of the City Council within months, serving from 2013 to 2017. In 2017, she was re-elected to the City Council. She first gained prominence after video clips of her chairing contentious meetings were shared on YouTube.
Marin was elected second deputy chairman of the SDP in 2014. In 2015, she was elected to the Finnish Parliament as an MP from the electoral district of Pirkanmaa. Four years later, she was re-elected. On 6 June 2019, she became Minister of Transport and Communications.
On 23 August 2020, Marin was elected chair of the SDP, succeeding Antti Rinne.
In December 2019, Marin was nominated by the SDP to succeed Antti Rinne as the Prime Minister of Finland, but Rinne formally remained party leader until June 2020. In a narrow vote, Marin prevailed over Antti Lindtman. A majority of the ministers in her five-party cabinet are women, numbering 12 out of 19 at the time of the cabinet’s formation. She is the third and longest-serving female head of government in Finland, after Anneli Jäätteenmäki and Mari Kiviniemi.
In January 2018, Marin and her partner Markus Räikkönen had a daughter. In August 2020, Marin and Räikkönen, who works in communications, married at the Prime Minister’s official residence, Kesäranta. Their permanent residence is in the Kaleva district of Tampere, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have resided at Kesäranta. She has said that, if she had the choice, she would move to the countryside.
Marin describes herself as coming from a “rainbow family”, as she was raised by two female parents. She was the first person in her family to attend university. Marin is a vegetarian.
Marin was on the list of the BBC’s 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020. On 9 December 2020, she was selected by Forbes to rank 85th on the list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. In 2020 she became a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. Marin was selected for the cover of Time magazine’s “Time100 Next” theme issue, which showcases one hundred influential leaders from around the world. In the December 2022 Financial Times selected Marin on the 25 most influential women list.
Also, the French magazine Marie Claire ranked Marin as one of the most influential women in its “1st Annual Power List”. The German newspaper Bild has praised Marin as the “coolest politician in the world”. In 2022, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation named Marin as the icon of progressive leadership.