The Finns Party has been hit by a big drop in reported support levels in the latest monthly poll carried out for Yle by Taloustutkimus. The party’s support dropped 4.3 percentage points to 10.7 percentage points. That's a fall of 7 percentage points compared to their performance in April's election.
The Social Democrats, by contrast, saw their support leap by 3.9 percentage points to 18.3 percent. The Centre Party is in first place with 21.7 percent, although that has dropped by 1.7 percent since last month. The National Coalition is in third place on 18 percent, down 0.9 percent since last month.
The poll comes as Finns Party leader and Foreign Minister Timo Soini has to deal with an insurgency in his party against the government’s immigration policy. The party’s third vice-chair Sebastian Tynkkynen on Monday published an appeal for a special meeting of the party’s organs to vote on continued participation in the government after what Tynkkynen claims is a departure from the government programme on the issue of immigration.
Finland is set to welcome some 50,000 asylum seekers this year, an unprecedented figure with some 20,000 already having made claims since January. The influx has been particularly difficult for the Finns Party’s anti-immigration wing to stomach, with a number of demonstrations held in recent weeks demanding that Finland close its borders.
