Support for Centre Party slips below 20 per cent

Roughly half believe National Coalition Party will provide next prime minister

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Support for Finland’s current ruling government party the Centre Party has fallen below 20 per cent. According to a poll commissioned by the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s (YLE) newscast Ylen uutiset and conducted by Taloustutkimus, at the moment only 19.2 per cent of the Finns support the Centre Party.
     
In the light of the poll, the conservative National Coalition, the Centrists' partner in the present coalition along with the Greens and the Swedish People's Party, is currently the country’s clear favourite party with support of 25.1 per cent.
      The runners-up are the opposition Social Democrats, supported by exactly 20 per cent of the respondents.
      The Green League’s approval rating is ten per cent. The populist True Finns (8.3%) have overtaken the Left Alliance (7.6%) in popularity, while support for the Swedish People’s Party remains at 4.4. per cent.
      At the turn of the year just fewer than 2,500 Finns were interviewed over the telephone for the survey.
     
Nearly half of the Finns now believe that the next prime minister will be from the National Coalition Party. To be precise, 48 per cent of the 976 people interviewed between January 7-13 believe that the next government will be headed by a National Coalition representative.
      Eighteen per cent of the Finns still believe that even the next prime minister will be from the Centre Party. Eleven per cent predict that an SDP representative will take over the office. Nearly a quarter (23%) of the respondents declined to respond to the question.
      Of the National Coalition supporters, 76 per cent believe the next PM will be from the National Coalition line-up. Even among the Centre Party supporters, 49 per cent agree with them.
     
Half of the Finns predict government cooperation to continue between the Centre Party and the National Coalition under the leadership of the latter after the 2011 Parliamentary elections. A third of the nation believes the SDP will produce a governmental comeback from the opposition wilderness they were relegated to in 2007.
     
Only ten per cent of the Finns give credence to the idea that the SDP and the Centre Party would find each other as the main government parties.
      Some 26 per cent of the respondents believe the National Coalition and the SDP might form the blue-red core of the next government.
      The margin of error of the second telephone interview, carried out once again by Taloustutkimus for YLE, is 3.2 per cent either way.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Centre Party losing popular support (5.5.2008)

See also:
  Poll: National Coalition Party increases lead over competitors (22.12.2008)

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