They’ve lost Finns Party supporters over their refusal to do the right thing and leave the current government, or at least threaten to leave it.
And no YLE (state propaganda wing), they didn’t lose support because of the rebellion within the party, they lost support because their feckless policies led to the rebellion itself. You can’t position yourself as a party of small, balanced, managed immigration/migration and then sit on your thumbs during the greatest breach of Finnish border sovereignty (an elusive term in an era of EU hegemony) in its history as a nation.
NOTE: This is similar to the outrage by republican voters and fiscal conservative democrats (Reagan conservatives) to Bush Jr.’s bailout of Wall Street which led to the rise of the Tea Party. I doubt anything similar happens here though, just voter dissatisfaction leading to The Finns Party’s demise.
Yle poll shows steep drop in Finns Party support
A new poll carried out for Yle shows a huge drop in support for the Finns Party. The 4.3 percentage point fall in just one month is exceptional in Finnish polling history, and hits the populist party after a rebellion within the party over immigration policy.
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.
NOTE II: In order for The Finns to regain their public trust, Soini should step down as party leader, with the new leader insisting that the party leave government. Or just stay a rump party ankle biting its way on the sidelines.
