Finland to Get World's Youngest Prime Minister

Sanna Marin recently turned 34
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 9, 2019 3:33 AM CST
Finland to Get World's Youngest Prime Minister
Sanna Marin.   (Wikpidia/Hjalmar-fiwiki)

Finland is about to get the youngest prime minister in its history—and 35-year-old Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk is about to lose his title as the world's youngest currently serving leader. Transport minister Sanna Marin, who turned 34 a few weeks ago, has been chosen to lead the Social Democratic Party, the Guardian reports. Her party is the largest in a five-party ruling coalition, and she's not the youngest party leader of the five: The Left Alliance is led by 32-year-old Li Anderson and the Centre Party is led by 32-year-old Katri Kulmuni. The Green League is led by 34-year-old Maria Ohisalo, and the Swedish People's Party is led by Anna-Maja Henriksson, 55. All five party leaders are women.

Marin was chosen as prime minister after Antti Rinne resigned amid criticism of his handling of a postal strike. She became the head of the city council in Tampere, her hometown, when she was 27. Two years later, she was elected to the Parliament of Finland. Marin, who will be her country's third female prime minister, dismissed questions about her age after narrowly winning a vote among the party's leadership, the BBC reports. "I have never thought about my age or gender, I think of the reasons I got into politics and those things for which we have won the trust of the electorate," she said. Other world leaders under 40 include 39-year-old New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who is believed to be 36. (More Finland stories.)

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