Sorry for party rocking, says Finland’s 36-year-old Prime Minister Sanna Marin, after the young politician had a wild night in Helsinki.
According to BBC News, Marin went out with friends and her family to a club until 4:00 am local time but forgot to bring one of her work phones and subsequently missed a text that she had been exposed to a confirmed case of COVID-19 and needed to quarantine. To top it all off, Marin was even pictured drinking beer at the club while she could have been spreading the virus.
Marin originally blamed a simple misunderstanding for being out partying, despite knowing her foreign minister had been exposed to COVID-19.
She “was initially told she did not need to isolate because she had been fully vaccinated, but later missed a text that advised her to do so,” the BBC reported:
At first Ms. Marin defended her actions, arguing that she had followed the advice of her secretary of state, who informed her about the Covid exposure.
But in a Facebook post on Monday, Ms Marin said she should have double-checked the guidance and used better judgement.
“I am very sorry for not understanding that I needed to do that,” she wrote.
The politician also stated on her Facebook that she did have one phone on her, but that nobody texted it: “On Saturday night I didn’t have a government council phone with me, but a parliamentary work phone, which I mainly use to handle work tasks. You can always reach me on the phone and so you reached me this time too.”
Marin said she did not see the text that went to her government phone until Sunday.
According to the British media, “Under Finland’s Covid guidelines, anyone who is double-jabbed does not need to isolate if they come into contact with a positive case. But the guidelines do advise people to voluntarily avoid social contact if they are waiting for access to a COVID test.”
Additionally, there are different guidelines “for government ministers and employees also recommend limiting social contact immediately after exposure”
The BBC also reported: “Ms. Marin became the world’s youngest prime minister when she elected to lead a centre-left coalition with four other parties in 2019.”
After her election, CNN reported that “Marin was the first member of her family to attend university. She entered politics at 20 and quickly moved up the ranks of the center-left Social Democratic Party. At 27 she was elected Tampere City Council leader, and three years later she became an MP.”
According to Euronews, Marin isn’t the only Scandanavian leader to face COVID-19 criticism:
The former Prime Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg, was fined €2,000 for breaking her own restrictions on public gatherings for her 60th birthday meal in February.
Meanwhile, ex-Swedish PM Stefan Lofven was photographed visiting a shopping centre last December, despite the government’s advice not to.
Marin tested negative for COVID-19 after she finally received a test.