Sanna Marin Set to Become the World’s Youngest Sitting Prime Minister

Sanna Mirella Marin is not your ordinary politician. Born in Helsinki, she spent her teenage years working in a bakery and was the first person in her family to go to university. Marin rose through the ranks after leading the city council of her industrial hometown Tampere when she was 27, according to Reuters.

 

And at 34, she is all set to become the youngest ever Prime Minister of Finland and the youngest sitting Prime Minister in the world.

 

On Sunday, Marin narrowly won a vote among Social Democrat lawmakers, according to Reuters, and replaces outgoing Prime Minister Antti Rinne, who resigned after coalition partner the Centre Party said it had lost confidence in him over his handling of a postal workers' strike.

 

Marin, a Member of Parliament since 2015, has previously been the party's vice chairwoman and will lead a centre-left coalition with four other parties which are all headed by women, three of which are under 35.

 

The mother of one, Marin was brought up in a ‘rainbow family’, by her mother and her female partner, according to Finnish media.

She is active on social media and regularly shares images about her personal life (she had candidly shared selfies of her pregnancy bump) and images from Pride events and, thus, has the power to appeal to the millennial generation.

 

Speaking after her appointment, Marin said she has “never thought” about her age or gender, adding, “I think of the reasons I got into politics and those things for which we have won the trust of the electorate.”