Antti Rinne, the chairperson of the Social Democrats, welcomed the results of the latest poll by Helsingin Sanomat. “Sounds nice,” he said in Pori on Tuesday.
The Social Democratic Party has seen its popularity creep up to a two-year high of 22.1 per cent, finds an opinion poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat. One year ago, the opposition party was projected to emerge from the next parliamentary elections with a 19.6 per cent share of the popular vote.
“Sounds nice,” Antti Rinne, the chairperson of the Social Democrats, commented yesterday at SuomiAreena, a public debate forum held annually in Pori.
The National Coalition, in turn, halted its six-month slide in the poll by recording an up-tick of 0.5 percentage points in support to 20.2 per cent.
Support for the Centre Party decreased by 0.5 percentage points to 15.3 per cent.
Prime Minister Juha Sipilä (Centre) underscored in Pori on Tuesday that policy makers must remain committed to carrying out the necessary reforms and not yield to populism in the face of criticism and unpleasant poll results.
“I’m sure Finns will recognise that we’ve shouldered our responsibility once the elections are upon us,” he said according to Helsingin Sanomat.
Contrary to the National Coalition, the Green League continued on its downward trajectory by slipping from 13.5 to 13.2 per cent – a level that is over four percentage points below the level (17.5%) it was polling at in August 2017. The opposition party nonetheless remains the fourth most supported party in Finland.
Almost one-tenth (9.6%) of the 2,516 people interviewed for the poll expressed their support for the Left Alliance, which has seen its popularity creep up by 0.9 percentage points over the past two months.
The Finns Party is projected to win 7.8 per cent, the Swedish People’s Party 4.3 per cent, the Christian Democrats 4.2 per cent and the Blue Reform 1.3 per cent of the popular vote. Two per cent of respondents, meanwhile, expressed their support for parties without a single seat in the Finnish Parliament.
The phone interviews were conducted between 11 June and 12 July by TNS Kantar.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT Photo: Roni Lehti – Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi
