Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Friday that she had taken a drug test, following a furor over a leaked video showing her dancing at a party with one of her country's biggest pop stars.
Having previously denied claims that she had taken drugs, she told a news conference in Helsinki on Friday that she had been tested for narcotics and expects the results next week.
“In recent days, there have been quite grave public accusations that I was in a space where drugs were used, or that I myself used drugs,” Marin told reporters, according to Reuters.
“I consider these accusations to be very serious and, though I consider the demand for a drug test unjust, for my own legal protection and to clear up any doubts, I have taken a drug test today, the results of which will come in about a week,” she said.
Marin, 36, had faced calls from rival politicians to take a drug test after the video was posted on social media showing her mimicking a song in front of a camera and dancing with a group of people at a party, including the male pop star Olavi Uusivirta.
Riikka Purra, leader of the opposition Finns Party, and Mikko Karna, a member of Parliament from the agrarian Center Party, a coalition partner of Marin's Social Democratic Party, both suggested that she should volunteer to take one.
“I’m disappointed that it has become public. I spent the evening with friends. Partied, pretty wild, yes. Danced and sang,” Marin — who in December 2019 became Finland’s youngest prime minister — told the Finnish broadcaster YLE on Thursday after the video emerged.
In a separate interview with the Swedish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet, she said: “I have not used drugs myself, or anything other than alcohol. I’ve danced, sung and partied and done perfectly legal things.
"I have also not been in a situation where I would know that others are doing it that way."
The use, possession and dealing of drugs is illegal in Finland, although police say offenses involving narcotics are the most common in the country. Police recorded approximately 10,000 drug-related offenses in 2019 — the latest figures available.
The punishment for unlawful use of narcotics in Finland is either a fine or a maximum of six months of imprisonment.
Marin's use of alcohol has nonetheless been a hot topic in Finnish media this week as the debate raged about whether it was appropriate for her to have been captured on video partying.
It is not the first time she has come under the spotlight for partying. In December, she made a public apology after going out clubbing until 4 a.m. without her work phone.
As a result, she was not informed that she had been in close contact with Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, who had tested positive for Covid. Marin did not test positive.