SDP still most popular despite 2% support fall

Support for the Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (Social Democratic Party of Finland-SDP), which leads the five-party coalition government, has fallen to 21.4 from the previous month, according to the results of a poll commissioned by the national broadcaster Yle.

The poll carried out by Taloustutkimus published on Thursday showed that the support for SDP decreased by two percent month on month, although it still remains top in the popularity list.

The poll aid the main opposition Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party) remained second on the popularity list with 18.8 per cent support, closely followed by another opposition, the Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP) with 18.3 percent support.

The support for Perussuomalaiset also decreased by 0.1 percent while the popularity of Kokoomus increased by 1 percent from the previous month.

Another component of the government, the Vihreä Liitto (Green League) surpassed the Suomen Keskusta (Centre Party of Finland), the second largest component of the government, with 11.7 per cent support as the support for the Keskusta went up by 0.8 percentage points to 11.3 per cent.

The support for Vihreä Liitto also increased by 0.1 percent from the previous month.

Two other components of the ruling coalition – the Vasemmistoliitto (Left Alliance) and the Suomenruotsalainenkansanpuolue (Swedish People’s Party of Finland-RKP) secured the sixth and seventh places on the popularity list with 8.0 percent and 4.1 per cent supports respectively, while the opposition SuomenKristillisdemokraati (Christian Democratic Party) secured the eighth place with 3.0 per cent support.

Research Manager Tuomo Turja from pollster Taloustutkimus told Yle that support for the SDP began to drop during the last two weeks of August.

"The decline in SDP support this time comes almost exclusively from the retired and over 65 age group. Support for the SDP among the elderly population has fallen very clearly," said Yle, quoting Turja as saying.