According to Yle’s most recent monthly voter poll, the political struggle of the month, changes in leadership and vote of confidence have not led to large fluctuations in party support.
"The changes are very small this time," opinion researcher Research Director of Economic Research Tuomo Turja told Yle.
More than six months have passed since the municipal elections, and the most popular party remains the Prime Minister Sanna MarinThe Social Democratic Party (SDP), followed by the Finnish Party in second and the National Coalition Party (NCP) in third.
The voting period began only a couple of days after the Congress of the Central Party was held in Oulu Annika Saarikko replace Katri Kulmuni as chairman of the party.
The change in leadership led to only a very small increase in party support, 0.2 percentage points to 11.5 percent.
"For the second month in a row, the support of the Central Party increased slightly and after the Saarikko elections [as party chair], a small peak is visible but the level of support has not increased," Turja explained.
The SDP will strengthen support for the elderly and white-collar workers
According to the latest study, SDP support rose by almost half a percentage point to 21.8%.
The party-dominated coronavirus crisis has consolidated its leadership at the forefront of the survey, with many elderly supporters backing the party again after last month’s figures.
"The increase in SDP support is due to both the elderly and the working age population. If you look at your professional background, staff are quite strongly behind this support,[insupport)[insupport)" Turja said.
Support from national contact points is declining following government criticism
Finland’s second most popular party is Jussi Halla-ahoThe Finnish party, whose support increased slightly and was exactly 19 per cent in the latest survey.
A national coalition party led by Petteri Orpo, however, fell 0.7 percentage points to 17.7 per cent, despite significant criticism of the government ‘s plans to revive the economy and boost employment.
"Support for the Finnish party has strengthened, especially among the working population. The reason for the low level of support for the National Contact Point is not clear from the background material to the study," Turja said.
The Greens are slipping behind the Center Party
The biggest change in the latest study is the 0.8 percentage point loss of support for the Greens led by the Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo.
Green party support is currently 10.9 percent in the poll, which means the party will drop to fifth in the rankings as the central party moves forward.
"The Greens have lost special support for the SDP," Turja explained.
At the same time, support from the Left Alliance remains almost unchanged at 7.9 per cent, while other smaller parties had some support, with 4.5 per cent of respondents now saying they support the Swedish People’s Party, 3.3 per cent electing the Christian Democrats and 1.8 per cent from Movement Now. .
The combined support of the five governing parties in the Yle survey is 56.6 percent.
Voters interviewed just over 3,440 voters from 7 September to 6 October. The margin of error was +/- two percentage points.
Source: The Nordic Page