The next Finnish parliamentary election is gearing up and the three major parties start working on their leads to see who will have the right to start talks for a coalition government after the vote on April 2. Polls show the three main parties separated by a small margin, with a rise of undecided voters.
The three parties vying for leadership are the centre-left Social Democrats, currently governing with Sanna Marin as PM, the centre-right National Coalition and the far-right Finns Party. The latest poll from YLE showed the National Coalition trailing with a 21.6% preference, while the Social Democrats follows with 19.1% and the Finns Party behind those two at 18.4%.
The latest poll showed a 0.3% growth of the Social Democrats, while the National Coalition dropped 1.4% and the Finns Party 0.9%. According to Taloustutkimus research director Tuomo Turja, the party poised to keep losing as the election draws closer is the National Coalition. Usually parties ahead of polls starts losing their advantage as elections draw closer. Turja attributes the decline to a growth of undecided voters, reaching 31% of respondents.
Overall, ruling party Social Democrats is unusually managing to keep its appeal. Traditionally governing parties tend to suffer the most in the next election cycle. The centre-left party managed to avoid this path as the prime minister and the government remain popular with voters. The ruling coalition is projected to have 51.5% of votes, with only minor changes between the various member of the coalition.
The current government has been in charge since 2019 in a coalition between Social Democrats, National Coalition Party, Green League, Left Alliance, and the Swedish People’s Party. Prime Minister Sanna Marin took her role in 2020 after the previous government led by Antti Rinne collapsed following widespread trade union protests at the end of 2019.
