The Finnish musician captured on camera dancing up close with Finland’s married Prime Minister Sanna Marin has spoken out publicly to deny having an affair with the leader.
Olavi Uusivirta made the announcement on Instagram on Friday, saying the two are just friends and writing in Finnish that “nothing inappropriate has happened.” The Fin, 28, said he wouldn’t comment on the matter any further.
“There has been speculation in the public about the quality of the relationship between me and Prime Minister Sanna Marin,” Uusivirta wrote. “Hand on heart I can just say it like it is: we are friends and nothing inappropriate has happened.”
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A video of the duo surfaced online Friday, which showed Marin, 36, dancing closely to Uusivirta as she beamed with music bumping in the background. At one point, Uusivirta appeared to whisper something to the leader or, as some in Finnish media have suggested, kiss her.
The clip, which clearly shows Marin with Uusivirta despite being secretly recorded in a dark nightclub, was just over a minute long. It’s the latest video to emerge in recent weeks that’s shown Marin enjoying Helsinki nightlife along with celebrities in the Nordic nation.
These videos led a section of Marin’s constituents to pressure the leader, now occasionally dubbed the “Party PM,” into taking a drug test on Friday. The leader said she did it as an act of good faith to her detractors.
“I did nothing illegal,” Marin said in Finnish, the BBC reported. “Even in my teenage years I have not used any kind of drugs.”
In support of Marin, hundreds of Finnish women began posting videos of themselves dancing and partying to social media using the hashtag #solidaritywithsanna.
While Marin has shot down claims she was using drugs at the nightclub, she has not made a public statement about her relationship with Uusivirta—who posted a picture of himself with Marin to Instagram last week but deleted it Saturday.
