Follow-up survey casts light on surprise results of European elections in Finland

A HIGH NUMBER of Finns Party supporters voted for the National Coalition in last month’s elections to the European Parliament, finds a follow-up survey by Verian. The Finns Party won 7.6 per cent, roughly 139,000, of the votes cast in the elections,

By: helsinkitimes.fi

Jul 16 2024
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Follow-up survey casts light o

A HIGH NUMBER of Finns Party supporters voted for the National Coalition in last month’s elections to the European Parliament, finds a follow-up survey by Verian.

The Finns Party won 7.6 per cent, roughly 139,000, of the votes cast in the elections, falling well short of both poll-based expectations and its previous showings. Pre-election polls suggested that the populist right-wing party had a real chance to add to its two seats in the European Parliament.

Instead it had to settle for one.

According to YLE, the follow-up survey revealed that roughly 50,000 people who had voted for the party in the latest parliamentary elections voted for the National Coalition in June. An even bigger contributor to its underwhelming showing was its failure to mobilise its supporters, according to Verian.

Supporters of the Social Democrats, in turn, moved behind the lead candidate of the Left Alliance, Li Andersson, whose tally of roughly 245,000 votes is a new personal high in European elections in Finland. About 60,000 of the votes, the survey indicates, came from supporters of the Social Democrats.

She also received around 25,000 votes from supporters of the Green League.

Sami Borg, the research manager at the Foundation for Municipal Development, stated to YLE after the elections that the results indicate that voters within the left-green bloc have become more willing to move within the bloc instead of sticking with one party within the bloc.

Voter turnout in the elections landed at 40.4 per cent.

According to Verian, 45 per cent of those who abstained from voting pointed to the lack of suitable candidates, 43 per cent to distrust toward politics and politicians, 39 per cent to the remoteness of EU politics, 38 per cent to the lack of a personal stake and 38 per cent to the lack of a suitable party.

The market research company interviewed 1,036 people for the follow-up survey on 15–20 June. The survey results have a margin of error of three percentage points.

Aleksi Teivainen – HT