Antti Lindtman, the chairperson of the Social Democrats, gestured in the session hall of the Parliament House in Helsinki on 12 March 2024. The Social Democrats has seen an almost two-percentage-point increase in support since mid-March, according to the latest opinion poll commissioned by YLE. (Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)
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THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS seized the top spot in the latest opinion poll commissioned by YLE.
YLE on Friday reported that support for the opposition party has surged by 1.9 percentage points to 21.7 per cent since mid-March. With the National Coalition simultaneously seeing its popularity decrease by a point to 20.6 per cent, the Social Democrats moved ahead of the ruling right-wing party for the first time since November 2023.
Tuomo Turja, the research director at Taloustutkimus, stated to the public broadcasting company that the opposition party has clearly managed to hold on to its supporters while slowly chipping away at support for its main rivals, the National Coalition and Finns Party.
The Social Democratic Party has become more popular especially among women and 25–35-year-old adults.
Taloustutkimus contacted 2,613 people for the poll between 11 March and 2 April. About four-fifths, or 1,981, of them were able and willing to disclose which party they would vote for if the parliamentary elections were held now.
The polling period coincided with notable public discussion about a series of political strikes that, for example, halted the handling of goods at ports and complicated fuel distribution, and the spending cuts laid out by the government of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP). The general housing allowance, for example, was slashed at the beginning of the month, possibly prompting some voters to re-consider their allegiances, gauged Turja.
“It may be that [those who shifted their support to another party] included groups who were especially affected by the cuts,” he said to YLE.
The Finns Party, however, was relatively unscathed, with its approval falling by 0.6 points to 17.4 per cent and its status as the most popular party among working-class voters intact.
Support for the Left Alliance crept up by 0.5 points to 9.5 per cent. The Centre Party and Green League both saw their approval ratings slip, from 12.2 to 12.0 per cent and from 8.9 to 8.3 per cent, respectively.
The Green League elected Sofia Virta as its chairperson last summer but has yet to benefit from the leadership re-shuffle.
The Centre Party, meanwhile, will select a successor to Annika Saarikko in Jyväskylä in mid-June. Although Saarikko’s decision to hand over the reins of the party resulted in a moderate bump in the approval rating, Turja reminded that the party continues to poll at a “historically dismal” level.
The Christian Democrats and Swedish People’s Party, the two junior partners in the ruling right-wing coalition, swapped places near the bottom of the poll as support for the former rose from 3.1 to 3.6 per cent and that for the latter fell from 3.7 to 3.4 per cent. Also the Swedish People’s Party is facing a leadership election: Anna-Maja Henriksson in February confirmed that she will step down as chairperson and vie for a seat in the European Parliament in June.
Support for Movement Now dropped by 0.2 points to 1.7 per cent.
The poll results have a margin of error of 1.8 points.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
