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Are they both gone soon? Jacinda Ardern (right) has announced her resignation, Sanna Marin is threatened with being voted out.
Guido Fieldsforeign editor
They came as beacons of hope for women and boys: New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (42), who was elected in 2017, and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin (37), who was elected in 2019, had taken hearts worldwide by storm. They were hailed as the new generation of politicians who didn’t just have financial figures in mind, but wanted to create a feel-good state.
But on Thursday Jacinda Ardern announced her resignation after five and a half years. Her tank is empty, she said. And Sanna Marin could also disappear from the scene in just ten weeks: the elections on April 2 threaten to turn into bankruptcy for her.
Their support has been waning since 2021, when the conservative Coalition Party (Kok) won local elections. Above all, the Kok advocates lower taxes and a strict spending policy.
Dance video causes criticism
But the great descent began when the Finnish newspaper “Iltalehti” published a video that showed an exuberant Sanna Marin dancing (see above). She was celebrated for it all over the world: US ex-First Lady Hillary Clinton (75) and the Democratic US MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (33) posted videos out of solidarity that also showed them dancing.
But the Finns took the Marin video the wrong way. They punished their prime minister with bad poll numbers. The latest polls show that the Kok has risen six percentage points to 23 percent since the last election and is in the lead. In second place are now the right-wing Finns (19.3 percent), who have even overtaken Sanna Marin’s Social Democrats (18.8 percent).
“I think Sanna Marin’s chance of winning the election in April is only 20 percent.”Laura Nurmi
Lauri Nurmi (42) is a political commentator on “Iltalehti”. He says to Blick: “I think Sanna Marin’s chance of winning the election in April is only 20 percent.”
Sanna Marin, as a representative of the left wing of the Social Democrats, came with a lot of idealism, but also inexperience, and promised reforms. “The international media hyped her up in a way we Finns have never seen with a new head of government,” says Nurmi.
But a year and a half ago she changed her style. Nurmi: “The social democrat became an international superstar who posted the latest pictures of herself on Instagram – sometimes with a deep neckline – and enjoyed the admiration.”
The national problems, however, had been neglected more and more. “This year the budget deficit will rise to eight to ten billion euros and the national debt to 154 billion euros,” says Lauri Nurmi. The Prime Minister could not explain how she wanted to get the finances under control. Nurmi: “Most Finns have lost confidence in them.”
expectations not met
The German political psychologist Thomas Kliche (65) has an explanation for the fact that both young hopefuls could disappear from the scene so quickly.
Kliche: “Because they want solutions to problems without real changes, many voters rely on two types of politicians: On the one hand, there are Trump, Bolsonaro and Orban with destructive offers of megalomania and egoism. On the other hand, more authentic idealists emerge who show their feelings, present themselves as trustworthy through the transparency of their motives and, almost as a role model, look for new paths for people and deal with the associated inner conflict.”
The voters would like to look up to someone to whom they delegate the conflicting changes in order to continue living in comfort. Kliche: “If even ‘someone like that’ cannot bring about the necessary change, you can’t really do anything yourself and can continue lazily and choose cynically.”