Sanna Marin party row reflects Finland’s low threshold for scandal

In a country where politicians are held to very high moral standards, it does not take much to provoke debate

Sanna Marin has been the focus of unusual - by Finnish standards - international attention ever since she became the world's youngest prime minister at the age of 34 in December 2019. Not every Finnish prime minister makes it on to the cover of Time or has their holidays reported on in Italian national newspapers.

Raised in modest circumstances by her mother and her mother's female partner, Marin worked in her 20s as a cashier in a department store. Now, as well as prime minister, she is mother to a young child, has a social life and occasionally goes to festivals and parties. For the more conservative parts of society, all that seems hard to combine in one person.