Basic Finns take second place after the Coalition
FINNISH SPEECH has become Finland’s second most popular political party, reveals latest opinion poll Commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat.
According to the survey, the right-wing populist opposition party would receive 19.1 percent of the vote if the parliamentary elections were held today, which means an increase of 1.2 percentage points from December.
The support of basic Finns has risen steadily, vote after vote, since July.
Sakari NurmelaKantar Public’s head of research said the party will have to work hard to mobilize its supporters on election day as it has the majority of voters who polled abstained from voting in the 2021 local elections.
“How well this mobilization succeeds is decisive,” he commented to Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday.
The Social Democrats trail the opposition party by 0.6 points after its approval rating fell 0.6 percentage points from the previous month to 18.5 percent. The parties also changed positions in YLE’s latest opinion poll.
The coalition, meanwhile, remains the most supported party in the country despite a 0.7 point drop in popular support – the second drop in as many months – to 22.8 percent, the lowest level since March 2022.
According to Nurmela, the decrease is not due to anything particularly dramatic, but simply because the differences between the parties tend to narrow as the elections approach.
“It is not necessarily related to anything too dramatic. It is typical when the elections are close, he told Helsingin Sanomat.
Support for the center fell by 0.1 percentage points to an all-time low of 9.8 percent in a survey commissioned by the daily. The support of both the Greens and the Left Alliance fell in the same way, the former from 0.6 points to 9.2 percent and the latter from 0.2 points to 7.8 percent.
The popularity of the Swedish People’s Party increased by 0.1 points to 4.4 percent, the Christian Democrats by 0.5 points to 3.9 percent, and the Nyt movement by 0.4 points to 2.2 percent.
Nurmela reminded that fluctuations in the parties’ support ratings can be expected – including several points – when the parties start their campaigns for the April 2 parliamentary elections.
“The closer we are to the elections, the easier even a small issue becomes a highly politicized bone of contention. Such things can lead to fluctuations in popularity, he stated. “All parties must continue to try until the end, like only until the last stages [of the campaigns] that you are trying to sway voters.”
Aleksi Teivainen – HT