Parties honing employment policy with 2011 elections in mind

Poll: three largest parties all see slight increase in popularity

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The support enjoyed by the three largest parties, the Centre Party, the National Coalition Party, and the Social Democratic Party, has stabilised, according to a poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup.
      The poll involved telephone interviews with 2,872 Finns in all parts of the country except the Åland Islands. The interviews were conducted between November 9th and December 2nd.
     
At 23.2 per cent, support for the National Coalition Party is shows an increase of just one half of a percentage point, and support for the Centre and the SDP has slightly grown since October.
      The poll gives the Centre Party exactly 20 per cent support, a rise of four tenths of a percentage point, and the opposition Social Democrats got 10.5 per cent, a half-point rise.
      All of the other parties lost slightly, except for the Greens, whose rating was unchanged at 10.6 per cent. The biggest loser in the poll was the right-of-centre populist True Finns, who went down by half of a percentage point to 7.5 per cent.
     
Parties are already positioning themselves for the Parliamentary elections of the spring of 2011, at which time voters will be able to judge which economic program of the various parties will best raise Finland out of the recession, and which party will guarantee even a satisfactory level of basic public services.
      Unemployment is expected to peak in the early summer, but it should nevertheless remain a major concern in the elections.
     
Of the large parties, the conservative National Coalition Party runs the risk of being identified with economic hardship and tax increases, as the party’s chairman is the Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen.
      Early in the week Katainen spoke of his offer for an “employment contract” in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat and gave assurances that the National Coalition Party is not in favour of raising income taxes in the next government term.
     
The Centre Party is currently revising its strategy. The party’s chairman, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, has been taking a firmer attitude on his policies, straightening the ranks of the party, at least for now.
      His call for tax hikes on the rich, and his unyielding stance in the dispute with President Tarja Halonen over Finnish representation at EU summits have undoubtedly raised Vanhanen’s stature within the ranks of the Centre Party. However, Vanhanen’s “third way growth programme” for the coming decade remains somewhat vague.
      The Social Democratic Party and its chairwoman Jutta Urpilainen carries the burden of close ties with the labour union movement, which has lost a good deal of its clout. The SDP is a very hard party in which to make reforms, because any such moves will inevitably hurt the feelings of portions of the party base.
      On Thursday, Urpilainen put forward his “employment programme”, which is aimed at bringing the employment level to 75 per cent.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finance Minister offers extensive agreement on employment (1.12.2009)
  Poll: Greens increase their support and consolidate place as fourth most popular party (17.8.2009)
  Poll: Government approval rating falls over past six months (23.6.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat