Beaten on Sunday in the general elections in Finland, outgoing Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced on Wednesday that she would leave the head of the Social Democratic Party in September to become a simple deputy, also sweeping away speculation about a big international post.
The 37-year-old leader, whose political future is the subject of speculation, “has come to the conclusion that I will not seek a new term as leader of the SDP at the next congress in September”, she said during a press conference.
“I have not been offered an international position. I will continue my work as an MP,” the Social Democrat told reporters.
Ms Marin, although Finland’s most popular Prime Minister since the start of the 21st century, could not do better than a third place with her party in the elections on Sunday, where she was overtaken by the center-right and the party nationalist.
“I will submit the government’s resignation tomorrow (Thursday),” she said.
His party, which had improved its score compared to the 2019 elections, could however join a coalition with future Prime Minister Petteri Orpo if it chooses to ally itself with the left rather than the far right.
Ms. Marin also ruled out the possibility that she would become a minister in this case, or a candidacy for the Finnish presidential election next year.
“I don’t think it’s likely that I’ll be on the ministry team myself,” she said.
As for the hypothesis of representing Finland in the new European Commission next year, she also ruled it out when this post traditionally goes to the ruling party.
“It is very clear that the main government party will continue to take the post of commissioner in the future, which has been the case so far,” Ms Marin explained.
Referring to the “great honor” of leading the government for three and a half years, the one who has become a recognized international figure during her mandate also confided “exceptionally difficult times”.
“I honestly have to admit that my own stamina has been tested over the years,” she explained.
“I hope I will have a little calmer life, with these responsibilities behind me”.
Her electoral defeat marked a halt to the rapid rise of the one who had become the youngest Prime Minister in the world at the end of 2019, at only 34 years old.
His very feminine government, his good management of the Covid-19 pandemic and Finland’s membership of NATO, as well as his firm stand against neighboring Russia on the war in Ukraine had turned the spotlight on a leader with a modern profile.
Described as a “rock star Prime Minister”, she is more divisive in her country, where she has been criticized for the deterioration of public finances and inflation.
His two main adversaries, Mr. Orpo and the leader of the sovereignist and anti-immigration party of “basic Finns”, had focused their attacks on the economic situation of the country and the rise in prices.
But she had been able to blow a new wind on the SDP, a party from an aging and masculine industrial world.
“She made us proud, before people laughed at us, we were an old school party,” Mo Shimer, a 26-year-old SDP activist, told AFP.
Coming from a modest family, she was brought up by her mother and her partner near Tampere “the red”, the country’s industrial stronghold.
She had kept an attachment to the LGBT cause, recently participating in the Helsinki Pride march.
06/04/2023 04:13:04 – Helsinki (AFP) – © 2023 AFP