The latest semi-annual survey, called the Party Barometer, shows stronger support from the Prime Minister Sanna MarinSDP and government partner with Greens compared to last fall.
The majority of respondents, 55 per cent, said Marin’s five-party center-left government has done well or fairly well. At the same time, 37 percent were dissatisfied.
Highest approval since 1991
Supporters of four of the five coalition parties – the SDP, the Greens, the Left Alliance and the Swedish People’s Party (SPP) – were particularly pleased. On the other hand, supporters of the coalition’s second-largest party, the center, were less satisfied with the government’s performance.
The Marin government has the five strongest approval ratings since the launch of the barometer in October 1991. During this time, it has been the only government whose performance is considered by the majority of respondents to be good or fairly good.
The second most popular government was also led by the Social Democrats, Paavo Lipponen. In September 2001, his second cabinet earned a 47 percent approval rating.
Approval of Finnish party dips
Overall, support was highest for the SDP, with 49 per cent showing a very or moderately positive view, followed by the largest opposition party (46%), the Center and the SPP (40%), the Greens (38%) and the Left (35%).
They were followed by three opposition parties: Movement Now (34%), Christian Democrats (30%) and Basic Finns (29%).
The SDP and the Greens each saw support of four percentage points since last October’s poll.
The only party that showed a significant decline in positive views was the nationalist Perussuomalainen, whose support fell by the same four percent. Riikka Purra took over as party leader last August.
There were minor changes to the approval ratings of the other parties.
The party barometer, published on Friday, is commissioned by the largest parties. Pollster Kantar Public interviewed about 1,300 people aged 15-79 in mainland Finland from 4 to 11. April. It estimates the margin of error at 2.7 percentage points.
Source: The Nordic Page
