https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/12/09/TELEMMGLPICT000218592028_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqaRL1kC4G7DT9ZsZm6Pe3PUPXbRlaI4_qh_dM2Z5d688.jpeg?imwidth=450
Sanna Marin narrowly won the vote to replace the outgoing leader Antti Rinne, who resigned over his handling of a postal strike Credit: AFP

Finland's new 34-year-old prime minister is the world's youngest

by

Finland's leading party has nominated a 34-year-old prime minister, making her the world's youngest premier in a  women-led coalition cabinet after a political shake-up.

Sanna Marin, 34 from the dominant Social Democrats, who was nominated on Sunday, will have a finance minister two years her junior. Centre Party chief Katri Kulmuni, 32, will get the finance post when the full new cabinet is announced this week, party members said.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/12/09/TELEMMGLPICT000218595237_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQfy2dmClwgbjjulYfPTELibA.jpeg?imwidth=480
Katri Kulmuni, 32, will take over the post of finance minister Credit: Reuters

Finland's government resigned last week after the Centre Party said it had lost confidence in Social Democrat Prime Minister Antti Rinne over his handling of a postal strike.

The five parties in power - four of them led by women - decided to stay in coalition and continue with the same programmes, but said there would be a reshuffle.

Green Party leader Maria Ohisalo, 34, will continue as interior minister, the Left Alliance's chairwoman Li Andersson, 32, as education minister and the Swedish People's Party's Anna-Maja Henriksson, 55, as justice minister.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/12/09/TELEMMGLPICT000218610155_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqeo_i_u9APj8RuoebjoAHt0k9u7HhRJvuo-ZLenGRumA.jpeg?imwidth=480
The political shake-up has seen the emergence of a female-led cabinet. Clockwise from top left: Sanna Maris, Li Andersson, Katri Kulmuni, Anna-Maja Kristina Henriksson and Maria Ohisalo

"We want to make the axis between the prime minister and the finance minister work," Kulmuni said. "That is the foundation for this new generation of collaboration (between the Social Democrats and the Centre Party)," she added.

There was no immediate comment from Marin, the former transport minister.

She has had a swift rise in Finnish politics since becoming head of the city council of her industrial hometown of Tampere at the age of 27.

She will take over in the middle of a wave of strikes, which will halt production at some of Finland's largest companies from Monday. The Confederation of Finnish Industries estimates the strikes will cost the companies a combined 500 million euros ($550 million) in lost revenue.

Kulmuni, who previously held the more junior position of Minister of Economic Affairs, replaces Mika Lintila. She took over as the head of the Centre Party from ex-prime minister Juha Sipila in September.

Rinne will remain the Social Democrats leader at least until he chairs the party's conference in June.