At 34, Finland's Sanna Marin Becomes World's Youngest PM

Being at the helm of an all women-led coalition government, 34-year-old Sanna Marin is all set to become the youngest serving prime minister when she is sworn in later this week.

The Finnish Social Democrat held the top post after the resignation of her predecessor, Antti Rinne, who quit after just six months in office. Marin secured the top post against main rival Antti Lindtman 32-29 in a party council vote on December 8 to replace Rinne.

Rinne resigned last week after the Social Democrat Party’s key coalition partner, the Centre Party, lost confidence in him over his handling of a postal workers’ strike. He held the top post for just six months and is likely to be handed the post of parliaments vice speaker.

The new government enjoys a comfortable majority of 117 seats out of a total of 200.

With her victory, Marin joins New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, 39, and Ukraine's Oleksiy Honcharuk, 35, as world leaders in their 30s.

She, however, has her work cut out in leading a five-party coalition and curbing the ongoing labour unrest. The coalition’s main objectives include more public spending on welfare and infrastructure and making Finland carbon neutral by 2035.

The four other parties in the coalition government — Centre Party, Left Alliance, Green League and the Swedish People’s Party of Finland — have agreed to be in an alliance and follow the policy programme envisaged in June. Leaders of the five parties are all women, four of whom are younger than 35.

The transport minister was chosen by her Social Democratic party after its leader, Antti Rinne, quit as PM. Marin will be sworn in as the world's youngest sitting prime minister to be the third female PM in the Nordic country. 39-year-old Jachinda Ardern is New Zealand PM while Ukrainian premier Oleksiy Honcharuk is 35.

Marin’s political career began with heading the city administration in Tampere at the age of 27 and becoming an MP in 2015.

She has been the transport and communications minister since June and has a 22-month-old daughter.

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