Finnish PM Sanna Marin passes test by partying like one of us

Joe Hildebrand admits he was shocked when leaked video footage showed Finnish PM Sanna Marin dancing like a normal person.

As a keen observer of politics, I was deeply shocked by recent video footage of Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin drinking, dancing and partying the night away with friends.

There was something very unsettling about the 36-year-old’s behaviour, something I don’t think I have ever seen in a political leader here, something very unusual about the way she was acting.

It took me a while to put my finger on it, to fully process and contextualise her actions, but finally I found the word I was looking for to describe them: Normal.

It was behaviour that we would not bat an eyelid at if it was any other human being doing it. Stuff that, unless you are a trappist monk, everyone has done too many times to remember, and probably on a few nights that would be difficult to remember if we tried.

And yet when the prime minister of a small Nordic country did it, the outcry was so great that she was forced to take a drug test in order to clear her name.

Finnish PM Sanna Marin took a drug test after leaked partying videos. Picture: Matias Honkamaa/Lehtikuva/AFP

And therein lies the rub – or perhaps the grind, judging by Sanna’s smooth moves. We want our politicians to be one of us, able to understand all our wants and needs and hopes and dreams, and yet when they behave like one of us, we are outraged.

As a result, we get an endless parade of carbon copy career politicians who never deviate from carefully scripted lines and are often scared to say anything comprehensible, let alone controversial.

And, of course, then we complain about that too.

If we really want to be governed by soulless machines, there is a pretty good template for that in the Terminator movies. Wooden, unfeeling and unconvincing – and that was just the acting.

In the meantime, I would much rather be governed by someone human, normal and fun like Sanna Marin, even if her behaviour did produce a negative result – although, in her defence, that was only on the drug test.

Originally published as Finnish PM Sanna Marin passes test by partying like one of us