Finnish PM takes drug test as new video of her partying emerges

19 August 2022, 18:31

Sanna Marin said she has taken a drug test
Sanna Marin said she has taken a drug test. Picture: Getty/Twitter

By Will Taylor

Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin has taken a drug test as a fresh video of her partying emerged.

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The 36-year-old, who is among the youngest leaders in the world, had to deny drug taking after footage of her dancing leaked this week.

She has responded to the footage by saying she is a normal person in her mid-30s, and is known to enjoy clubbing and music festivals.

But she has spent the end of the week batting any suggestion of illegality.

Read more: Finnish PM denies drug taking after footage of 36-year-old dancing at 'wild' party emerges

Ms Marin told a press conference on Friday: "I have taken a drug test for my own legal protection, the results of which will come in about a week."

She said she had no government meetings on the weekend of the party.

"I had some time off and I spent it with my friends. And I didn't do anything illegal,” the Social Democratic Party leader said.

More footage has emerged of her dancing with a man in a group of people, after she was shown taking to her knees and singing along to a song in the first set of clips to leak.

She is no stranger to partying, having had to apologise last December for going clubbing until 4am with her work phone, leaving her unable to get pinged by a Covid app. She later tested negative.

But she has faced criticism for partying now while her country grapples with high electricity prices and tensions with Russia – a country it shares an 832-mile border with and has shared a tumultuous history – and now has had to deny any drug taking in the wake of the video's emergence.

"I'm disappointed that it has become public. I spent the evening with friends. Partied, pretty wild, yes. Danced and sang," she told Finnish broadcaster YLE earlier this week.

"I have not used drugs myself, or anything other than alcohol. I've danced, sung and partied and done perfectly legal things," the Hufvudstadsbladet newspaper reported her as saying.

"I have also not been in a situation where I would know that others are doing it that way."

Among those seen in the footage were Alma, a Finnish singer whose songs have charted in the UK.

Read more: Removal vans arrive at Downing Street as Boris jets off for second holiday before departure

Ms said she spends her time away from work with friends, like other people in their mid-30s, and intends to be the same person she was before taking the job.

Ms Marin is Finland's youngest ever prime minister
Ms Marin is Finland's youngest ever prime minister. Picture: Getty

"I hope that's accepted. We live in a democracy and in elections everyone can decide these issues," she said.

Her grip on the premiership will be keenly watched because of Finland's recent geopolitical shift with regards to Russia.

Read more: Putin's worst nightmare: Finland set to join Nato after Boris agrees defence pact

The country has abandoned its long-held position of neutrality and instead intends to join Nato.

It is a massive setback for Russia's Vladimir Putin, who not only has become bogged down in a protracted conflict in Ukraine but his actions have pushed another neighbouring state and Sweden to drop their neutral stances and begin talks to enter the defensive alliance.

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