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The Social Democratic Party (SDP) remains the most popular political party in Finland, according to Yle's latest poll of voter sentiment.
The Antti Lindtman-led SDP received the backing of 24.7 percent of respondents, nearly one in four, with Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's National Coalition Party (NCP) coming in a distant second on 18.7 percent support.
Further back in third were the Finns Party on 14.2 percent.
All three of the top parties however saw a dip in support compared to last month's poll results.
Tuomo Turja, research director at pollster Taloustutkimus, which conducted Yle's survey, noted that the SDP’s support has been at a high level for several months, so slight fluctuations are natural.
Backing for the SDP hit a 20-year-high in August, when the party received 25.8 support in Yle's poll.
"Yes, it's usually the case that when support hovers around 26 percent, there's really only one direction, and that’s downwards. The SDP saw a slight downward trend from a peak in August. Upcoming polls will show whether this is a turning point or just a temporary dip," Turja said.
Support increases for opposition parties
Among the other parties, the Centre Party remained in fourth place in the new poll, garnering 13.9 percent of support, with the Left Alliance (10.2%) in fifth and the Green Party (7.6%) in sixth.
Turja noted that all three of those opposition parties saw support increase compared to last month's poll.
"It can be said that the Left Alliance is the biggest beneficiary of the SDP's slight drop, as it appears that some Social Democrat voters have now moved to support the Left Alliance," he said.
The two smaller parties in the coalition led by PM Orpo saw little change to their popularity among voters, with support for both the Swedish People's Party and the Christian Democrats falling by 0.1 percent to leave them with 3.8 percent and 3.4 percent support, respectively.
Support for all four government parties was down compared to last month, with the combined backing for the coalition now standing at just over 40 percent.
Pollster Taloustutkimus asked 2,407 people between 10 November and 2 December which party they would vote for if the parliamentary elections were held now. More than three-quarters of respondents stated their party affiliation. Those polled were adult residents of mainland Finland. The company says the margin of error is two percentage points in either direction.
