![\"Sanna](\"https:\/\/c.files.bbci.co.uk\/10412\/production\/_115587566_sanna.jpg\")
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Prime Minister Sanna Marin<\/span><\/p>\n It’s a walk of less than 200m from the prime minister’s office to the House of Estates, where Prime Minister Sanna Marin is about to chair a meeting on her government’s signature Equality Programme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She’s not in the mood for small talk, but who would be on their first week back to work after a honeymoon? The short break at an undisclosed location in Finland followed a surprise August wedding, quickly arranged against the backdrop of a global pandemic, to the father of her toddler.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A photo of Sanna Marin, in her long-sleeved Finnish couture satin wedding dress, embracing husband Markus Raikkonen, a former professional footballer and her partner of 16 years, was an unexpected post on her active, and very personal, Instagram account. She’d previously shared a photo of herself breastfeeding her daughter Emma.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The couple stood with arms around each other, smiling broadly, in the picturesque grounds of Kesaranta, the official prime ministerial Helsinki residence, an ornate wooden villa on the banks of the Baltic Sea.<\/p>\n It was rapidly shared by political editors and fashion bloggers, podcasters and high-school students – the second photo of Sanna Marin in less than a year to make an instant impact.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A dozen or so reporters are waiting on the steps of Finland’s House of Estates, a Renaissance building where the coalition government meets behind closed doors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “I don’t prepare what I say to them,” Sanna Marin says as she approaches them, her female bodyguard walking behind. “They’ll ask me anything and I’ll answer honestly.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There’ll be a lot more questions about her personal life this week perhaps?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “No. They want to know about the issues, we have a lot going on,” she replies firmly. “Maybe they’ll ask at the end.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Some of the reporters are wearing masks, a few are holding extendable boom mics. All snap to attention as she walks up the other side of the cordoned steps to face them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She’s the first politician to arrive at the meeting, and she’s right – the Finnish media asks her about the issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And four hours later, after the meeting, she stops outside to talk to them again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She is the last politician to leave.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The first photo of Sanna Marin that went viral was taken more than 200 days earlier, in December 2019, on the first day of her new job. As Finland’s new and youngest-ever prime minister, the then 34-year-old Sanna Marin stood smiling broadly, next to the other politicians who would be leading her centre-left coalition government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n They were all women. At the time the photo was released, only one leader of the five-party coalition was over the age of 34.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Sanna](\"https:\/\/c.files.bbci.co.uk\/16471\/production\/_115594219_sanna-04.jpg\")
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