Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who was already in deep water after video showing her partying hard with a man not her husband appeared on social media, apologized on Tuesday after a photo revealed two bare-chested women kissing at her official residence with one woman’s breasts only covered by a sign reading “Finland.”
Marin, telling reporters in Helsinki that she had invited some friends over to “sauna, swim and spend time together” after the Ruisrock music festival in July and the incident occurred in the downstairs guest bathrooms, offered, “In my opinion that photo is not appropriate. I apologize for that; that photo shouldn’t have been taken,” according to YLE News.
“We were using the sauna facilities and the garden area, but we did not spend time inside the Kesäranta house, although the downstairs guest toilets were in use,” Marin added.
One of the women kissing, Sabina Särkkä, 33, apologized for the photo, saying she was “deeply sorry” for embarrassing Marin, The Daily Mail reported.
EXCLUSIVE: Model who posed for TOPLESS kiss at PM Sanna Marin's home apologises https://t.co/e1WlVESQBA
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) August 24, 2022
“Many women who support Marin have been posting videos of themselves dancing on social media, with the tag #SolidarityWithSanna,” UPI reported, opining that the women are protesting against what they claim is unfair and sexist treatment of Marin.
Last week, new video was released of Marin, 36, who is married and has a four-year-old daughter, showing her dancing at a party in an apparent intimate manner with a man who is not her husband.
The new video followed an initial video from the same party that was released earlier that week and showed her dancing provocatively, catalyzing questions as to whether she was doing drugs. Marin denied that accusation, although partygoers could be heard chanting the slang name for cocaine at the party.
Finnish tabloid Seiska posted the new video last Friday, revealing Marin in close contact and hugging a mystery man who is nuzzling her neck. One witness told Seiska that Marin was “clearly intoxicated” and “danced intimately with at least three different men,” adding that she “sat on the laps of two different men. … She acted like a single 20-something. It was hard to believe that she is married,” the New York Post reported.
Marin had protested that she was not using drugs after a first video leaked showing her dancing wildly with her friends.
Marin’s protestations came in response to people who asked whether she had taken drugs during the party, with Finnish MP Mikko Kärnäeven even asking her to take a drug test.
“I have nothing to conceal or hide, and I haven’t done anything illegal,” she said on Thursday. “I still don’t know that anything illegal has happened. It would hardly be a police matter then.”
“Personally, I did not take drugs, nor did I consume anything other than alcohol. I danced, sang, and partied — perfectly legal things. And I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve seen or known of others [using drugs],” she asserted.
“In the leaked video footage, unidentified people are heard shouting about ‘flour,’ which is a slang term for cocaine in Finland,” The Telegraph noted.
Related: New Video: Finnish Prime Minister ‘Danced Intimately’ With Man Not Her Husband