Finland: Sanna Marin to become world's youngest prime minister

Sanna Marin, whose party is the largest in a five-member governing coalition, is set to be the country's third female leader. Marin narrowly defeated Antti Lindtman by a 32 to 29 vote in the party council.

The Social Democrats in Finland elected deputy leader Sanna Marin as their candidate for the post of prime minister on Sunday.

POLITICS | 03.12.2019

Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne resigns

Aged 34, Marin would be the Nordic nation's youngest ever leader if confirmed by parliament in a vote likely to occur next week.

Read more: From sleeping bags to their own homes

"Now we have to look ahead," Marin said, having defeated rival Antti Lindtman in a party vote. "We have a lot of work to do to restore confidence, but we have a joint government program."

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Sanna Marin

The 34-year-old Sanna Marin was elected by her party in December 2019 to serve as Finland's prime minister after Antti Rinne resigned over fallout from a postal strike. Once she is sworn in, set for mid-December, she will become one of the world's youngest head's of states. She previously served as her country's transport minister.

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Jacinda Arden

Since October 2017, Jacinda Arden has served as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand. She took office at the age of 37. She is also only the second woman to give birth while in office. Arden is regarded as one of the world's most powerful women and was praised internationally for her response to the Christchurch terror attacks in 2019.

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Jeanine Anez

After Evo Morales resigned as Bolivia's president in November 2019, the 52-year-old Jeanine Anez became the interim leader of the country. Previously a vice president of the Senate, she has said she would like to try to schedule fresh elections as soon as possible. She is politically right-wing.

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Sophie Wilmes

After serving as Belgium's budget minister, Sohpie Wilmes became the country's prime minister — and its first female one — in late October 2019. The 44-year-old has a tough task before her: scraping together a majority from a highly fragmented national parliament. She belongs to the French-speaking liberal-centrist MR party.

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Zuzana Caputova

Slovakia elected Zuzana Caputova as its first female president in March 2019. She took office in June, also becoming the youngest-ever president at age 45. Her political views are marked by her strong environmentalism and her determination to weed out corruption in the central European state. Prior to becoming president, she had not held an elected political office.

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Angela Merkel

The 65-year-old was appointed chancellor in 2005 — the country's first female head of government — and is currently serving her fourth term as Germany's leader. The pastor's daughter from communist East Germany and chemistry doctorate was named "Person of the Year 2015" by Time magazine. Her term is scheduled to end in 2021, and she has said she will not pursue the chancellor position again.

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Sahle-Work Zewde

The 69-yeaer-old Sahle-Work Zewde was elected unanimously by the members of Ethiopia's parliament to serve as the country's 5th president. She is the first woman to fill the role, though the role is largely ceremonial. However, as of 2019, she is Africa's only serving head of state. A career diplomat, she had previously held various high-level positions in the UN.

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Tsai Ing-wen

Tsai Ing-Wen is the first woman to serve as president of the Republic of China, more commonly known as Taiwan. Her inauguration in May 2016 led Beijing to freeze official relations with the small island, which the mainland claims can never be independent. Tsai has made it clear she will not "bow to pressure" over the issue of sovereignty. She has announced she will run for reelection in 2020.

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Erna Solberg

Norway, too, is governed by a woman. Erna Solberg took office in 2013. The 58-year-old is the wealthy northern country's second female prime minister, after Gro Harlem Brundtland, who held the position in the 80s and 90s. Her tough asylum policies earned her the nickname "Iron Erna." She also heads up Norway's Conservative Party.

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila

The 52-year-old, Namibia's fourth prime minister, has been in office since 2015. Kuugongelwa-Amadhila went into exile in Sierra Leone as a young teenager. She pursued higher education in the US, graduating with a degree in economics before returning home in 1994, where she began working in politics. She is the first woman to head Namibia's government and a strong proponent of women's rights.

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Sheikh Hasina

Sheikh Hasina is the 10th and longest serving prime minister in the history of Bangladesh. Before her current term, which began in 2009, she also held the office from 1996-2001. Forbes business magazine listed the 72-year-old on its list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

WHERE WOMEN RULE THE COUNTRY

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic

The 51-year-old held several government positions and represented Croatia as ambassador to the United States before she was elected in 2015 as the country's first woman president, and its youngest. Grabar-Kitarovic's position from 2011 to 2014 as assistant secretary general for public diplomacy at NATO makes her the highest-ranking female ever within NATO's administrative team.

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Having emerged as the largest party in the aftermath of the Finnish election earlier this year, the Social Democrats are able to select one of their own to the post of prime minister in the wake of Tuesday's resignation of previous incumbent Antti Rinne.

Rinne quit after a key coalition partner, the Finnish Center Party, lost confidence in him and withdrew its support, alluding to a lack of trust.

The Center Party were also critical of the 57-year-old's handling of a two-week postal strike.

Political breakthrough, age 27

Now the frontrunner to replace Rinne, Marin has previously held the position of vice chairwoman of her party and most recently served as the minster for transport and communications, in addition to her role as deputy leader.

Marin rose quickly through the ranks of Finnish politics after becoming head of the city council in the industrial town of Tampere in 2012, at the age of 27. She has been a lawmaker since 2015. 

Like New Zealand's Jacinda Arden, Marin is also a new mother, having given birth to a daughter last year. She herself was raised by a single mother and has spoken out about how she felt discriminated against when her mother was in a same-sex relationship.

Five parties, five women

In addition to putting forward Marin as the world's youngest prime minister, the Social Democrats also announced that 32-year-old Katri Kulmuni, the head of the Center Party, would become finance minister when the final cabinet is announced this week. Kulmuni had previously served as the minister of economic affairs, a more junior position. 

Five parties currently share power in the center-left coalition, and all of them are headed up by women, most of whom are in their 30s, meaning Marin's new coalition cabinet will also be female-led.

Along with the incoming Kulmani, Green Party leader Maria Ohisalo, 34, is expected to remain the interior minister, Left Alliance chairwoman Li Andersson, 32, the education minister and Swedish People's Party leader Anna-Maja Henriksson, 55, the justice minister.