Antti Kaikkonen, the chairperson of the Centre Party, spoke to reporters in the Parliament House on Tuesday, 18 February 2025. The Centre Party gained 1.2 percentage points in the latest opinion poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat, but it continues to poll around the 13-per-cent mark. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)
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THE CENTRE PARTY is closing in on the Finns Party, indicates an opinion poll conducted for Helsingin Sanomat by Verian.
The poll reveals that the gap between the two political parties has narrowed from 2.9 to 1.1 percentage points in the past month, with the Centre seeing its popularity rise by 1.2 points to 13.2 per cent and the Finns Party its popularity fall by 0.6 points to 14.3 per cent.
The Finns Party has borne the brunt of the public fallout over the dramatic cost cuts implemented by the four-party coalition led by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP). Support for the Finns Party has decreased by 5.8 points since the elections in 2023, translating to a few hundred thousand voters.
The National Coalition, by contrast, has dropped 1.7 points to 19.1 per cent since the elections, after dropping another 0.2 points between January and February.
The Social Democratic Party held on comfortably to the top spot in the poll after seeing its popularity creep up by 0.1 points to 24.5 per cent, its highest level since the elections. Also the other left-leaning opposition parties made gains between January and February. Support for the Left Alliance increased by 0.4 points to 9.1 per cent and support for the Green League b 0.3 points to 8.1 per cent.
The poll brought bad news also for the two junior partners of the ruling coalition, the Swedish People’s Party and Christian Democrats. Support for the former fell from 4.1 per cent to 3.7 per cent and that for the latter from 4.1 to 3.6 per cent.
The ruling coalition thus has the support of 40.7 per cent of Finns, representing a decline of 1.7 points from the first month of the year.
Support for Movement Now dropped by 0.3 points to 1.9 per cent.
Verian conducted a total of 3,849 online interviews for the poll between 21 January and 16 February. A quarter of the people contacted were unable or unwilling to reveal how they would vote if the parliamentary elections were held today.
The results have a margin of error of 1.6 points.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
