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Last month's racism furore, in which members of the Finns Party stretched their eyelids with their fingers in a series of social media posts — purportedly in support of the former Miss Finland — has not had any detrimental impact on the party's polling figures.
That's according to Yle's latest monthly poll of voter sentiment.
The eye-pulling posts were widely condemned as racist as well as damaging to Finland's international image, and the behaviour was described as "childish" by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP).
However, the party saw a rise in voter support during the latest polling period, which coincided with the racism row.
According to the latest figures, some 15.9 percent of the electorate would vote for the Finns Party if a parliamentary election were to be held tomorrow — a bump in support of 0.9 percentage points.
"When the scandal was at its peak, the Finns Party had its best weeks in the polling period. However, it's difficult to assess the impact, since support dipped a little afterwards," Tuomo Turja, Research Director at pollster Taloustutkimus, explained.
The latest results show that the Finns Party is continuing to claw back the support it lost during the local and municipal elections last spring.
"The rise in support for the Finns Party is currently coming from the ‘Greater Helsinki Area’ — that is, from Helsinki, Uusimaa, and more broadly from Southern Finland," Turja said, adding that previous scandals involving the Finns Party have not significantly impacted polling numbers either.
Yle's political correspondent Ari Hakahuhta noted that the party seems to have benefited from focusing once again on the theme of immigration — a topic that doesn't gain much traction in local elections.
"In addition, it appears that the eye-strecthing incident has increased rather than weakened the party’s support," Hakahuhta said.
PM Orpo's National Coalition Party (NCP) also saw its support climb by the same amount as the Finns Party, 0.9, to leave the main government partner in second place in the rankings.
The opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP), however, remains the most popular party in the country, polling 23.9 percent support in the latest survey, although that represents a slight drop on the figure in December.
Bounce to the Left
Amongst the other parties, only the Left Alliance has seen its support grow to any significant degree since the beginning of 2025.
The party's support among voters has increased by 1.5 percentage points since this time last year, and has been on an upward trajectory throughout the past 12 months.
"This may reflect the fact that the party was the only one to abstain from the debt brake agreement. On the other hand, the government’s unpopularity and the ongoing wait for economic growth may also be factors contributing to the growth in support for the Left Alliance," Turja said.
The current support level of 10.7 is an exceptionally strong showing for the Left Alliance, Turja further noted, as it has built on the momentum from its surprise success in the 2024 European Parliamentary elections.
Between 8 December 2025 and 2 January 2026, Taloustutkimus asked 2,024 people which party they would vote for if the parliamentary elections were held now, with 1,572 people (77.7%) stating their party affiliation. Those polled were adult residents of mainland Finland. The margin of error is 2.1 percentage points in either direction.
