The heads of the four ruling parties – Riikka Purra of the Finns Party, Petteri Orpo of the National Coalition, Anna-Maja Henriksson of the Swedish People’s Party and Sari Essayah of the Christian Democrats – held a press conference to shed light on government measures to promote equality and non-discrimination in Finland. The measures were drawn up in response to revelations about racist remarks by members of the Finns Party, including Minister of Finance Purra. (Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)
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ROUGHLY A THIRD of Finns are satisfied with both the current government and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP), indicates a survey commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat.
Almost a third (31%) of the respondents expressed their satisfaction with the performance of the government and 38 per cent with the performance of the prime minister. The government was perceived negatively by 35 per cent and the prime minister by 33 per cent of the respondents.
Public satisfaction with the government is therefore lower than its predecessor. Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s (SDP) government drew a positive assessment from anywhere between 46 and 71 per cent of the respondents in surveys carried out between June 2020 and December 2022.
Supporters of the National Coalition estimated that the current government has performed at least fairly well at a rate of more than 60 per cent. The share dropped to roughly 50 per cent among supporters of the Finns Party and to roughly a third among supporters of the Swedish People’s Party.
The Left Alliance, the survey found, has succeeded best out of the opposition parties in satisfying its supporters, with a clear majority assessing its performance in the opposition positively. Both the Centre and Green League received a positive assessment from fewer than half of their supporters.
Supporters of the Centre stood out from the opposition in that around 40 per cent of them estimated that the government has performed its duties fairly or very well.
The survey also gauged the popularity of some other cabinet members. Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen (NCP) emerged as the most popular minister, with almost half of the respondents viewing that she has handled her duties fairly or very well. Minister of Employment Arto Satonen (NCP) was contrastively assessed to have performed his duties well by only 13 per cent of the respondents.
Minister of Finance Riikka Purra (PS), however, evoked the most dissatisfaction, with 41 per cent of the respondents gauging her performance as fairly or very bad.
Outgoing President Sauli Niinistö unsurprisingly received a glowing evaluation from the public: 88 per cent of the respondents estimated that he has performed his duties fairly or very well.
Verian conducted 1,004 phone interviews for the survey between 4–15 December.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
- Next Article Finnish government drops immigration as strategic research theme for 2024
Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
