---
title: "Sanna Marin's Apology | Katleena Kortesuo and Ivan Puopolo | Negotiator 112"
titleOriginal: "Sanna Marinin anteeksipyyntö | Katleena Kortesuo Ivan Puopolo | Neuvottelija 112"
episodeNumber: "112"
guest: "Katleena Kortesuo, Ivan Puopolo"
datePublished: 2021-12-15
duration: "25:11"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["leadership_governance","free_speech_society"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and a MacWhisper transcription of the Finnish audio, upgraded on 18 October 2026. The chapter marks are the publisher's own, translated one for one; all 17 were verified against the start of a transcript cue. No transcript is published here: the channel has no English caption track for this episode. The transcript has no speaker labels; attributions to Kortesuo and Puopolo are made only where the conversation settles them. The episode analyses the conduct of a serving prime minister and of named former ministers; both guests are commentators on the same side of Finnish politics and none of the people discussed is present. Published 15 December 2021."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/137-sanna-marinin-anteeksipyynto-katleena-kortesuo-ivan-puopolo"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep112-sanna-marinin-anteeksipyynto-kortesuo-puopolo/
---
# Sanna Marin's Apology | Katleena Kortesuo and Ivan Puopolo | Negotiator 112

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=0s) When an apology is called for
- [01:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=87s) The corporate-side recommendation: do not apologise
- [02:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=177s) Africa Star and what withdrawing would have cost
- [04:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=272s) The rule: apologise to your own audience
- [05:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=351s) Why a politician's situation is different
- [07:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=450s) Why Marin's position differs from Puopolo's
- [08:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=536s) A prime minister is under a magnifying glass of its own class
- [10:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=644s) Jäätteenmäki and an error of procedural form
- [12:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=729s) Kulmuni, advisers and carrying responsibility
- [13:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=814s) Is this about gender or about personality
- [15:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=920s) A phone call home: what is genuinely unforgivable
- [16:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=1016s) Shaking the institution of the prime minister
- [18:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=1103s) Summary: when to consider it and when not
- [20:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=1207s) The most equal act, or an exercise of power
- [21:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=1303s) Journalism and submitting to pressure
- [23:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=1408s) Leadership disappears if the line changes with every row
- [24:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc&t=1446s) You do not retreat from a publishing decision afterwards

## Summary

The communications trainer Katleena Kortesuo and Ivan Puopolo, recording after a session of the Weekly Wisecrack Club, work out when an apology is called for and when it is a mistake. Kortesuo's rule runs through the whole episode: you apologise when you have offended your own audience, not when the offended party was never your customer. Africa Star is the example of a row in which silence paid off and Telia's response to social media pressure the example of the right statement. Applied to Sanna Marin the distinction produces two conclusions: in Kortesuo's view the "boomer" comment should have drawn an apology, because the Social Democrats have many baby-boom voters, while Puopolo thinks apologising for a deliberately provocative Instagram post would be inconsistent — adding that, unlike him, a prime minister lives off popularity. The episode also covers why a prime minister is under a magnifying glass of a different order, the Jäätteenmäki case as a question of procedural form, Kulmuni's resignation, and Kortesuo's point that a demanded apology is an exercise of power, before ending on newsrooms that retreat from valid publishing decisions under pressure.

## Whose audience was offended

Kortesuo's rule does the whole job. An apology is owed to the people whose opinion of you you depend on — for a company its customers, for a politician the voters. Offering one to people who were never going to buy from you concedes that the complaint was legitimate without gaining anything, which is why Africa Star's silence and Telia's free-speech reply are held up as the right moves.

## Why the rule splits on a prime minister

In Marin's case the same test yields two answers. The "boomer" remark offended voters her party depends on, and in Kortesuo's account the next poll showed it. A deliberately provocative post is different: apologising for something done on purpose would, in Puopolo's view, be irrational — though he concedes that a politician whose living depends on popularity has reasons he does not.

## Form, not substance

The Jäätteenmäki comparison is included because it turned on procedure: the information in the fax was something she could have requested as prime minister. Keeping that distinction visible is what separates a communications analysis from a political one.

## A gift, not a demand

Kortesuo's closing comparison carries the episode: an apology must come unasked, like a gift, and a demanded apology that is then refused is pure exercise of power. From there the conversation turns to newsrooms, arguing that a publishing decision made on journalistic grounds should not be retracted because of a social media storm.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Sanna Marinin anteeksipyyntö | Katleena Kortesuo Ivan Puopolo | Neuvottelija 112](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-SUxELrbc).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/137-sanna-marinin-anteeksipyynto-katleena-kortesuo-ivan-puopolo).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep112-sanna-marinin-anteeksipyynto-kortesuo-puopolo/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/yhteiskunta/ep112-sanna-marinin-anteeksipyynto-kortesuo-puopolo/).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Sanna Marin's Apology | Katleena Kortesuo and Ivan Puopolo | Negotiator 112, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep112-sanna-marinin-anteeksipyynto-kortesuo-puopolo/, 2021-12-15. For quotes include episode 112 and timestamp.