Finland's Prime Minister forced to resign (update: Sanna Marin becomes new PM)

[Helsinkian]

Finland's Prime Minister, Antti Rinne (SDP), has had to resign as a result of a controversy in which he is believed to have misled the parliament. This goes back to the labour dispute shaking Finland's postal service in which around 700 postal workers were being forced to accept a new contract which radically cuts their salaries. The labour dispute led to a postal strike which expanded in November to various support strikes. The same controversy had already led to the resignation of the Minister for State-Owned Enterprises, also of SDP.

What doomed Rinne was that he claimed in a session of parliament that he and the government had been opposed to the worsening of the postal workers' contracts and that the postal service had acted without the government's approval. The leadership of the postal service disputed that, and it then came out that the government had known of the plans and had not objected. This meant that Rinne had misled the parliament.

In practice, Rinne's fate was sealed when his largest coalition partner, the Centre Party, announced that they no longer had confidence in him, though they were willing to continue with a different SDP Prime Minister. Misleading the public had been the reason why SDP had forced out the Centre Party PM Anneli Jäätteenmäki in 2003; now Centre Party got their belated revenge.

The new Prime Minister is set to be elected during the next week or so. The leading candidates are Sanna Marin, Minister for Transportation, and Antti Lindtman, chairman of the SDP parliamentary group. Rinne still wants to continue as SDP chairman, though. Were Marin elected, she would be the country's third female PM and we would also be in a situation where all government coalition parties are led by women.

The irony of all this is of course that Rinne, a former union boss, had to resign because of a scandal arising from a labour dispute.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Less than 6 months in office.

[Meclazine for Israel]

I was hoping for sexual indiscretion.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

The idea of a mass strike action to protect just 700 workers really warms my heart.  Imagine if. 40,000 workers had their wages slashed in America and as a result 3 million people go on strike and Trump resigns?

[Antonio the Sixth]

The idea of a mass strike action to protect just 700 workers really warms my heart.  Imagine if. 40,000 workers had their wages slashed in America and as a result 3 million people go on strike and Trump resigns?

And this is why we can't have nice things.

[Helsinkian]

The new Prime Minister is set to be elected during the next week or so. The leading candidates are Sanna Marin, Minister for Transportation, and Antti Lindtman, chairman of the SDP parliamentary group. Rinne still wants to continue as SDP chairman, though. Were Marin elected, she would be the country's third female PM and we would also be in a situation where all government coalition parties are led by women.

SDP's party council has elected Sanna Marin to be their candidate for new Prime Minister by the tightest of margins, 32 votes for Marin, 29 for Lindtman. In advance it was speculated that the "red-green" types would support Marin, while the labour union types would gravitate toward Lindtman -- Rinne though has a union background but still backed Marin.

Marin will officially become PM in a few days when the parliament elects her for the office; the coalition parties have already agreed. At 34, she will become the youngest female Prime Minister in the world, certainly at the moment (she's younger than Jacinda Ardern), maybe ever?

[Boobs]

Marin will officially become PM in a few days when the parliament elects her for the office; the coalition parties have already agreed. At 34, she will become the youngest female Prime Minister in the world, certainly at the moment (she's younger than Jacinda Ardern), maybe ever?

Depends on if you count Captains Regent of San Marino (there have been one 26-year old, two 27-year old and one 28-year old women to serve as that). If not, then Marin is the world record-holder.

[Tender Branson]

Marin will officially become PM in a few days when the parliament elects her for the office; the coalition parties have already agreed. At 34, she will become the youngest female Prime Minister in the world, certainly at the moment (she's younger than Jacinda Ardern), maybe ever?

Depends on if you count Captains Regent of San Marino (there have been one 26-year old, two 27-year old and one 28-year old women to serve as that). If not, then Marin is the world record-holder.

Let’s only count real countries ...

Once Kurz gets sworn in again, he will be the youngest worldwide again (currently it’s the Ukrainian PM).

[Helsinkian]

Marin used to be the chair of the Tampere city council. Here she is presiding over the controversy over the building of a tram network in the city (English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUBaOJBslXc

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Marin used to be the chair of the Tampere city council. Here she is presiding over the controversy over the building of a tram network in the city (English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUBaOJBslXc

Holy sh**t, this is gold.

[Helsinkian]

Parliament has now elected Marin Prime Minister. The second-most important job in the government also goes to a woman, as the Centre Party's new-ish leader Katri Kulmuni takes the Finance Minister's portfolio. All in all the government has 12 female ministers and 7 men. All of the five coalition parties in the government are led by women -- though Antti Rinne remains SDP chairman until the next summer's party conference. Rinne will be given the "consolation prize" of deputy speaker.

https://twitter.com/TNiskakangas/status/1203729511658995713

[Santander]

Bye-bye Finland.

[Epaminondas]

Well, Antti Rinne is Finnish-ed.