As we head towards Independence Day on Saturday, a new poll indicates that the popularity of President Tarja Halonen has remained high in the public approval ratings since the last time that it was measured in April.
According to the poll, commissioned by the Finnish daily Kaleva and conducted by TNS Gallup, 21% of the respondents give Halonen a "very good" rating, while 49% regard her performance as "fairly good".
According to Adjunct Professor in political science Pertti Timonen of the University of Tampere, the fact that 70% of people rank Halonen’s performance as very good or fairly good indicates the Finns’ strong support for the President.
However, there has been a slight decline in Halonen’s popularity since last spring. According to the poll commissioned by Kaleva in April the popularity was 3 points higher than today.
During her first term in office between 2000 and 2006, Halonen regularly enjoyed stellar approval ratings more commonly associated with Central Asian heads of state.
