Finland picks world's youngest prime minister

Finland is to have the world's youngest prime minister after 34-year-old Transport Minister Sanna Marin was picked by the coalition-leading Social Democratic Party to succeed Antti Rinne following his resignation as national leader.

She beat rival Antti Lindtman by 32 votes to 29 and will become head of a five-party coalition government, with all five having female leaders, and three of the four others also being aged under 35.

Once she is sworn in later this week, Marin will become the world's youngest prime minister. In New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern is 39 and the Ukrainian Premier Oleksiy Honcharuk is 35.

Rinne will remain as leader of the Social Democrats but stepped down as PM after losing the confidence of one of the coalition partners over his handling of strikes that followed the announcement of a wage cut for postal workers. He is likely to become vice-speaker of the Finnish Parliament and remain as chairman of the Social Democrats until next summer's party congress.

The change of government leadership is unlikely to result in any significant change in policy direction, as the Social Democrats and their four coalition partners, who between them hold 117 of the 200 seats in the country's Parliament, have said they remain committed to the government program agreed upon after the election in April. "We have a joint government program which glues the coalition together," said the new prime minister.

Marin has enjoyed a remarkably fast rise, having been in charge of the administration of the city of Tampere two years ago, and only becoming a member of Parliament in 2015. The first member of her family to go to university, she has a 22-month-old daughter and was named transport and communications minister in June.

"I have never thought about my age or gender," Marin, who will be Finland's third female prime minister, told reporters. "I think of the reasons I got into politics and those things for which we have won the trust of the electorate... we have a lot of work to do to rebuild trust."

Marin was raised in rented accommodation by her mother and her female partner and has previously spoken of how she felt "invisible" as a child because she could not talk about her family set-up.

Finland currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, so Marin's appointment is likely to be ratified before the next EU summit, which takes place in Brussels on Thursday-the same day that a general election takes place in the United Kingdom, which could have a major bearing on the country's future membership of the EU and its relations with the other 27 member states.