Finland\u2019s Social Democrats elected a 34-year-old former Transport Minister to the post of Prime Minister on Sunday, making her the youngest head of government in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Sanna Marin narrowly won Sunday\u2019s vote to replace outgoing leader Antti Rinne, who resigned on Tuesday after losing the confidence of the coalition partner Centre Party over his handling of a postal strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of work to do to rebuild trust,\u201d Ms. Marin told reporters on Sunday night, while deflecting questions about her age, \u201cI have never thought about my age or gender, I think of the reasons I got into\u00a0politics\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>and those things for which we have won the trust of the electorate.\u201d<\/p>\n At 34, Ms. Marin also becomes one of the world\u2019s youngest State leaders, ahead of Ukraine\u2019s prime minister Oleksiy Honcharuk, who is currently 35. Former Prime Minister Antti Rinne had headed Finland\u2019s centre-left five-party coalition since June, and his successor\u2019s appointment is unlikely to lead to significant policy changes by the Social Democrat-led administration.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a shared government programme which we have committed to,\u201d Prime Minister Marin said. The SDP won April’s legislative elections on promises to end years of economic belt-tightening introduced by the Centre Party to lift\u00a0Finland\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>out of a recession.<\/p>\n Mr. Rinne stepped down after several weeks of political crisis over a plan to cut wages for 700 postal workers.<\/p>\n Finland\u2019s postal service withdrew the reform plans in November after widespread strikes, but questions emerged over whether or not Mr. Rinne had previously endorsed the cutbacks, leading to the Centre Party declaring it had lost its trust in the Prime Minister last Monday.<\/p>\n Parliament is expected to formally swear in the new Prime Minister on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The former Transport Minister also becomes one of the world\u2019s youngest State leaders, ahead of Ukraine\u2019s prime minister Oleksiy Honcharuk, who is currently 35 Finland\u2019s Social Democrats elected a 34-year-old former Transport Minister to the post of Prime Minister on Sunday, making her the youngest head of government in the country\u2019s history. Sanna Marin narrowly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tControversy over wage cut<\/h2>\n