History repeats itself in Finland and that inside two decades time. A woman prime minister falls from grace for ...ethical reasons and the Finnish political establishment makes sure that this time there is a lesson to remember, despite all the very carefully kept equality-champion front.

The last ten days, Sanna Marin, the Finnish prime minister has lived the absolute humiliation for any politician being forced into a ...drugs test because some found her dancing ....provocative. The most insulting part was the fact that her own party, the Social Democrats (SDP), didn’t do much for her defence leaving a young woman to defend her dignity and her right to ....dance, alone. Actually some (a lot?) from her own party were among the ones who indirectly forced her into the ...drug test.

To understand the magnitude and the humiliation she dealt with it, it was like asking Boris Johnson to take an IQ test, Joe Biden a dementia test or Vladimir Putin a psychiatric evaluation, doesn’t matter what you think about any of them. All three would have said goodbye to their positions the very next day because that would have been the end of their political credibility as it has been now for Sanna Marin.

But that was not the first time in modern Finnish history a woman prime minister was haunted with rumours and lies to the absolute humiliation. Anneli Jäätteenmäki resigned on 18 June 2003, after 69 in the prime minister’s seat, and under pressure resulting from the accusation that she had lied to Parliament and the public over how she had acquired confidential Foreign Ministry documents which she used for political purposes during the election campaign. Soon after he resignation and the humiliation came to light that a presidential aide, Martti Manninen, affiliated with the Centre Party, had leaked the foreign ministry documents but ...it was too late for Jäätteenmäki, she had to carry the stigma of a prime minister resigning after 69 days due to a scandal. A scandal that was not a scandal at least for her part, a situation that left her alone and isolated even from her own party while – as everybody guessed later – everybody in her party Keskusa and the Finnish mainstream media knew exactly who leaked the document and from where. In fact his telephone and fax number were imprinted on the documents.

But nobody spoke and after 69 days in turmoil, Anneli Jäätteenmäki was forced to resign. But why they didn’t speak? Why did they leave her alone even though they knew? The answer lays in Anneli Jäätteenmäki herself.

Jäätteenmäki was the rising star from the north in the Keksusta (centre) party but with limited access and influence to the central party’s apparatus. She was also a reformist but the party’s conservative establishment believed that they could control her; she was a woman after all. But her crime was in what she believed and planned to do after becoming the prime minister.

She believed that the cold war was over therefore Finlandization towards any direction should end and Finland should be in the path of a modern industrial European state. She also believed that the Finnish president’s overwhelming powers, a result of the Finlandization, were weakening the prime minister’s position in a modern EU state and they should be taken. And that was her crime.

Sanna Marin is not from the Keskusta, she’s Social-Democrat but the mechanisms of conservatism in the Finnish political establishment work in the whole spectrum and Sanna Marin found herself isolated, humiliated and worst of all impeached from the Finnish political spectrum for a fake scandal.

Sanna Marin, the rising star of the social-democratic party with limited access and influence to the central party’s apparatus. A reformist who the party’s conservative establishment believed that they could control her; she is a woman and very young, inexperienced after all. But she has believes, socialist believes, and pans, democratic plans and dreams for a modern Finland. And that is her crime. And I’m afraid, the Finnish political establishment won ...again!