Finland Times

Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, Prime Minister of Finland YLE Radio interview time at the shore in Helsinki on Sunday, June 21, April 2013. Photo - Lehtikuva

The popularity of the incumbent government is on the wane, found an opinion poll conducted by the TNS Gallup.

 

According to the poll findings released on Monday, the popularity of the alliance government led by Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen has reached a level poorest in the last 15 years.

 

The number of respondents who termed the government’s performance good or almost good was very small. Only 32 percent of them expressed satisfaction at the government’s performance. The satisfaction rate stood at around 40 percent in autumn last year.

 

The government’s earlier lowest popularity level was recorded at 27 percent in 1997 during the regime of Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen.

 

Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen and Minister of Finance Jutta Urpilainen, as well as the Minister of Labour Lauri Ihalainen (right) in the plenary session of 9 April 2013, the Parliament began debate the Government's framework for a referral decision. Photo - Lehtikuva

In the opinion poll conducted early this month, 54 percent of the respondents belonging to the country’s four major political parties – the National Coalition Party, Social Democratic Party, Centre Party, and Finns Party – expressed dissatisfaction at government activities.

 

The rate of dissatisfaction stood at 47 percent in the previous opinion poll conducted by the TNS Gallup in September 2012.

 

Most of the respondents who expressed satisfaction at the government’s performance were elderly residents of metropolitan areas and Uusimaa while most of the high officials and employees covered by the poll expressed negative and dissatisfactory opinions about the performance of the present government.

 

Supporters of opposition parties were naturally very critical of the government’s performance but even supporters of the ruling alliance components expressed dissatisfaction at government activities.

 

Fifty percent supporters of the Left Alliance Party (Vasemmistoliitto) and the Green Party (Vihreät), two major components of the ruling alliance, covered by the poll rated the government’s performance as very poor.

 

Among the political parties, the Centre Party (Keskusta) topped the scale of popularity with 42 percent of respondents answering in its favour. It was a favourite to only 29 percent people and ranked fourth in the last opinion poll conducted one year ago.