Poll: Matti Vanhanen most popular choice for next Prime Minister
The Centre Party chairman Matti Vanhanen is by far the most popular prime ministerial candidate also for the next government. This was one of the findings of a poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat and conducted by Suomen Gallup, where a thousand Finnish voters were interviewed by telephone between January 1st and 12th.
Forty-four percent of the Finns would like to see Vanhanen continue as Prime Minister. The Social Democratic Party chairman Eero Heinäluoma and the National Coalition Party chairman Jyrki Katainen received 12 per cent and nine per cent respectively. In practical terms, Heinäluoma and Katainen are by and large equally popular.
The Centre Party supporters stand firmly behind Vanhanen, whereas of the SDP backers only 41 percent would favour Heinäluoma as the next Prime Minister, while no less than 30 percent would rather see Vanhanen continue in the job.
Of the National Coalition supporters 36 percent would like to see Katainen as the Prime Minister, but 28 percent would rather see someone outside the given choices in the office, namely the former Finance Minister and defeated presidential candidate, bank manager Sauli Niinistö.
Of the given government coalition choices, the Centre-Left option, namely a coalition between the Centre Party and the SDP, appears to be most popular with a 41 per cent support.
A Left-Right government based on cooperation between the SDP and the National Coalition Party was favoured by 22 per cent of those interviewed, while a Centre-Right government with the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party as partners received 18 per cent support.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 18.1.2007 - TODAY |
 Poll: Matti Vanhanen most popular choice for next Prime Minister
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