helsinki finnish prime minister sanna marin who in 2019 became the worlds youngest premier at 34 is battling to stay in power in an election on sunday as the country faces a recession and her challengers accuse her government of bloating public spending marin who has appeared on the covers of vogue and time magazine is considered by fans around the world as a millennial role model for progressive new leaders but at home she has been the subject of mundane political scrutiny criticized by the opposition for her centerleft coalitions debtfuelled spending and by the media for her partying at a time when europes energy crisis hit finland hard marin says spending on education and health services is key to securing economic growth her rivals petteri orpo of the rightwing national coalition party and riikka purra of the nationalist finns party are calling for fiscal austerity to restore government finances the three parties are running neckandneck in opinion polls with the most recent survey showing the national coalition leading with 198 support ahead of marins social democrats and the finns party at 192 each and while personally popular it is unclear if her popularity will translate into victory for her party in the parliamentary vote in 2019 the social democrats won very narrowly with 177 of the vote in response to neighbouring russias invasion of ukraine marins government overturned decades of military nonalignment and led finland to apply for membership in nato a move supported by almost all members of its parliament but both challengers say marins fiveparty coalition failed to rein in public finances and promise to put an end to a cycle of borrowing if they wincoalition needed with public debt at 71 of gdp as of the third quarter of 2022 up from 65 when marin took office in late 2019 mainly due to spending to support businesses and households through the coronavirus pandemic and the impact of the war in ukraine finlands indebtedness ranked 10th among the 20 eurozone nations according to eurostat marins social democrats believe economic growth will help finland stop accruing more debt and if need be prefer raising taxes over spending cuts finlands economy survived the covid pandemic better than those of most european countries but growth slowed down to 19 last year and the country is expected to tip into a mild recession this year while inflation peaked at 91 in december orpo told reuters his priority was to put debt back on a healthy track even if that would mean painful cuts to welfare spending such as unemployment benefits any winner will have to form a coalition of several parties to obtain a majority in parliament but no ties have been confirmed before the vote marin has rejected forming a government with the finns party calling it openly racist during a debate in january an accusation purra sternly rejected there is nothing to hide to be ashamed of or obscure in our values we are a nationalist and