THE NATIONAL COALITION has re-established itself as the most popular political party in Finland, indicates the latest opinion poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat.
While support for the ruling right-wing party stayed unchanged at 21.0 per cent, the Social Democratic Party saw its popularity decrease by 0.9 percentage points from the previous month to 20.7 per cent.
The Finns Party, meanwhile, continued its slide in the poll, losing another 0.4 points to drop to 18.0 per cent – roughly to the level of late last year and three points below its peak in June.
The Centre held on to the fourth place in the poll despite seeing its popularity plunge by 1.2 points to 10.1 per cent. The Left Alliance and Green League both registered increases of 0.7 points, the former rising to 7.8 and the latter to 7.7 per cent.
Support for the Swedish People’s Party stayed unchanged at 4.2 per cent. Both the Christian Democrats and Movement Now contrastively lost support, the former falling from 4.2 to 4.1 per cent and the latter from 2.4 to 1.9 per cent.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s (NCP) ruling coalition thereby has the support of 47.2 per cent of the public.
The major trends of the results align with the latest opinion poll by YLE: The National Coalition has re-claimed the pole position, while the Social Democrats, Finns Party and Centre are losing and the Left Alliance and Greens are gaining support.
In the poll by Helsingin Sanomat, respondents who revealed which party they would vote for if the parliamentary elections were held now were also asked to comment on how certain they are about their choice. Forty-one per cent of respondents stated that they are very certain and 48 per cent that they are quite certain about their choice.
Supporters of the Social Democrats, Left Alliance and National Coalition were particularly unwavering in their support.
The poll was conducted between 11 September and 6 October by Kantar Public. Altogether 2,428 people were contacted by phone for the poll, a sample that represents the 18–79-year-old population of Finland, excluding Åland. The poll results have a margin of error of two points for the largest parties.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
