Any sense that the record opinion poll score for Finland’s Green League published 11 days ago by Taloustutkimus was a one-off is dispelled by today’s survey from the country’s other main pollster, Kantar TNS. For the second time in August the Greens (VIHR) surge into second place and move above 17 per cent of voting intentions. Clearly the party’s change of leader in June, when it elected the youthful Touko Aalto, is bearing fruit as VIHR advances from month to month – this is its best poll of the year with Kantar.

In the tight four-horse race that the country’s politics has evolved into in recent months, only 3.4 percentage points now separate the four biggest parties – the centre-right National Coalition (KOK), the centrists of KESK, the Social Democrats (SDP) and the Greens.

The SDP is clearly suffering from the Greens’ growth, again polling below 18 per cent after having averaged over 20 per cent in the first three months of 2017, when it led the field. Meanwhile the divided Finns Party (PS) move up from a poor July score with Kantar, but 7 per cent is still one of its worst totals of the year as the populists continue to pay a price for parliamentary splits.

 

KANTAR TNS
Voting intentions, per cent
(change on July poll)

National Coalition Party – KOK 20.7 (-0.3)
Green League – VIHR 17.5 (+2.0)
Centre Party – KESK 17.3 (+0.9)
Social Democratic Party – SDP 17.3 (-2.3)
Finns Party – PS 7.0 (+0.8)
Left Alliance – VAS 8.4 (-0.5)
Swedish People’s Party – RKP 4.8 (+0.1)
Christian Democrats – KD 3.5 (+0.2)
Others 3.8 (-0.9)

Fieldwork: 17.08-18.08.2017. Published: 28.08.2017. Participants: 2621. Methodology: Telephone poll. Media partner: Helsingin Sanomat. More information here.

 

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