HS Gallup: President Halonen approval rating rises since last spring

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The public approval rating of Finnish President Tarja Halonen has risen since last spring. A fresh opinion poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by the polling organisation Suomen Gallup suggests that President Halonen’s job performance was slightly better during the autumn than last spring.
      In addition to an overall rating, the respondents were asked to evaluate the incumbent President's performance in the handling of foreign policy and her ability to respond to the needs and expectations of the people.
     
According to the results of the survey, particularly in the tasks pertaining to her leadership of Finnish foreign policy the President was seen to have succeeded better in the second half of the year.
      In foreign policy matters, Halonen got a fairly good or better rating from 79 per cent of the respondents, while six months previously, the corresponding figure was just 70 per cent.
     
Some 87 per cent of the respondents felt that Halonen’s overall performance was fairly good or very good. In June, the corresponding figure was 84 per cent.
      The survey indicates further that women tend to be more favourable toward the President than men. As in previous surveys, a larger proportion of women (35%) than of men (21%) gave Halonen a very good overall rating.
      In any case, just 11 per cent of the respondents felt that the incumbent President’s job performance had been poor.
     
The poll also found that supporters of the Social Democratic Party, the Left Alliance, and the Green League show higher than average satisfaction with Halonen's performance.
      However, the vast majority of supporters of both the Centre Party (89 %) and the National Coalition Party (76 %) also gave Halonen fairly good or very good marks.
     
In the handling of foreign policy, the President got a fairly good or very good rating from 79 per cent of Finns.
      Last summer the corresponding figure was just 70 per cent. This indicates that Halonen apparently succeeded better in the second half of the year.
      On the other hand, the results should be seen in context: Halonen’s overall ratings last summer were lower than she has been given in all 14 polls since June 2000.
      In June 2007, Halonen got poor marks from some 26 per cent of the respondents in her handling of foreign policy. This was reported to be a consequence of the sharpened views of supporters of the National Coalition Party, one of the winners in the spring's Parliamentary elections. However, the results of the recent survey indicates that these supporters have also become more sympathetic towards Halonen of late.
     
A total of 77 per cent of the respondents felt that the President’s ability to respond to the needs and expectations of the people was fairly good or very good. This rating was more or less the same as in June.
      The telephone interviews with approximately 1,000 Finns aged 15 years and over were conducted between December 3rd and 13th. The semi-autonomous island province of Åland was not part of the survey.
      The survey has a margin of error of three per cent in either direction.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Poll: Election reduced popularity of President Halonen (18.4.2006)

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