Sanna Marin, Finland’s Party-Girl Prime Minister, Takes Drug Test

I love Finland. And I’m an even bigger fan of female leaders. That’s why I was so proud to proclaim that “Finland is great because women rule. But Sanna Marin, Finland’s party-girl prime minister, is making a mockery of my proclamation.

Sanna Marin, Finland’s party-girl prime minister

Sky News reported yesterday on her still-unfolding, party-gate scandal.

Finland’s prime minister says she has taken a drugs test ‘for her own legal protection’ after videos emerged this week of her at a ‘wild’ party with friends in a private home. …

‘I have today taken a drug test and the results will come within a week. Never in my life have I used drugs,’ the married mother-of-one told the media.

Of course, having to take that drugs test is disqualifying enough.

 Now all we need is to find out that Marin was dancing and lip-syncing to “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” That, as you may know, is Cyndi Lauper’s girls liberation anthem. But I woke up this morning to this headline from the Associated Press:

Finland asks: Can a prime minister party like a rock star?

Imagine a country having to take a question like that seriously.

Finland applying to join NATO

Meanwhile, this country is in the midst of petitioning NATO for membership. This, in a desperate bid to prevent Russia from doing to Finland what it is currently doing to Ukraine.

So NATO members could be forgiven some dismay. Because Finland seems more interested in this question than in applying for membership. Such a frivolous national preoccupation does not inspire confidence…

For the record, the answer to that question is emphatically, no!

We all make sacrifices to do the things we want to in life. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to party like a rock star (or a rock-star groupie). But Marin should resign if that’s what she wants to do. Because serving as prime minister requires her to show greater moral rectitude and social restraint…

Sanna Marin’s a woman with lots to hide

She claims “I have nothing to hide.” Except that she does! She’s the friggin’ prime minister, after all. She has lots of state secrets in her head. And it only takes a few drinks for the proverbial loose lips to sink ships…

I cannot overstate that nobody is saying she can’t have fun. She just can’t do as any ordinary 36-year-old woman would. All leaders must make sacrifices.

And let’s be clear. Not every 36-year-old woman’s day job has her battling wits with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And she has to do this with security in Europe at stake for Christ’s sake! Marin needs to show some goddam discretion already!

That means no clubbing with friends or dirty dancing with strangers. She and her girlfriends can even party hearty, or have their rumored orgies. They should just do it in private, after ensuring her security has confiscated all phones. I appreciate wanting pictures to memorialize their frolics. But she should have her personal aide take them using her personal phone.

I’m sorry but, to paraphrase another Lauper song, “[Being prime minister] Changes Everything.”