Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Friday that she had undergone a drug test following a video released earlier this week showing her partying with friends, and promised that she had never used illegal drugs.
"Today I took a drug test and the results will come in a week," he told a news conference. "I have never used drugs in my life." Marin added that his ability to perform his functions remained intact on the night in question and that she would have left the party if he had had to work.
In recent hours, the Finnish Prime Minister faced calls from the opposition and from her own government partners to submit to a drug test.
The controversial video, published on Thursday by the tabloid Iltalehti tabloid, stole the attention of the Finnish media and overshadowed the summer congress of the Finnish Social Democratic Party (SDP) led by the 36-year-old Marin.
Apparently, the original video was published in a closed group on the Instagram social network with less than a hundred members to which Marin belongs, but then someone spread it on social networks.
According to some local media, partygoers are heard in the video mentioning the word jauhojengi (literally, the flour gang) and may imply that cocaine was used at the party.
Soon social networks were filled with comments from outraged people who demanded that Marin take a drug test, but also from many citizens who do not understand what this controversy is about and are delighted that their prime minister also has a private life and leaves partying on your vacation.
Before the news spread to the international press, Marin gave his version in an interview for public television YLE. The young prime minister pointed out that it was simply a party at a private home with some Finnish celebrities and she adamantly denied having used drugs, although she admitted to drinking "low-proof alcoholic beverages".
"I am upset that these videos have been published. The point is that I have been partying with some friends, dancing and singing, although it is true that crazy," said the young prime minister.
"I want to show that these positions are also occupied by normal people, with an ordinary life. I have a family life, a work life and free time to spend with my friends, exactly like many people my age," he told YLE.
Marin, who has already been "criticized" for attending the gay pride parade or going to a "heavy metal" festival in a leather jacket, sees no reason to change her behavior. "I am going to continue being the same person that I have been until now and I hope that people accept it. We live in a democracy, in the elections these questions are decided," she affirmed.
Since taking office in December 2019, becoming the world's youngest head of government, Sanna Marin has come under unprecedented scrutiny in Finnish history.
Last December, her face made the front pages of the tabloids for partying at a nightclub with some friends until four in the morning and leaving her official mobile phone at home.
She was forced to apologize, but remembered that she had her private phone with her and that, if an emergency had arisen, she could have been reached without any problem.
