Last month, the sitting government in Finland resigned after a health reform was rejected in the Riksdag, Finland’s parliament. The move has been viewed as unusual with an election so close, and the resigned three party-coalition government, led by Prime Minister Juha Sipila, could now face a historic defeat when the election result is revealed on April 14. And as that wasn’t enough complication for Finns to take in, a surge in support for the Finns Party, a eurosceptic and nationalist group have made the election result even harder to predict.
The anti-immigration party is currently seeing support from 13.4 percent of the Finnish population.
The numbers make it the country’s third largest party only days before the election takes place.
There are 10 parties represented in the 200-seats big Riksdag and lawmakers are elected via proportional representation.
Most opinion polls suggest the Social Democrats will replace Mr Sipila’s Centre Party as Finland’s biggest party, giving them a shot of reaching a majority.
The left-wingers could team up with the centre-right National Coalition Party, the Greens and the Swedish People’s Party, giving them the numbers they need to form a government coalition.
But the plans could be tumbled by the eurosceptic Finns Party. Although most parties have said they won’t form a coalition, they will be hard to ignore.
In an opinion poll conducted by Alma Media, the far-right party increased their popularity by 2.2 percent as the hit the 13.4 number.
A total of 1,201 people responded to the poll conducted between March 25 and April 3 by Tietoykkönen.
The right-wing opposition party has significantly improved its performance, having polled only slightly above the eight per centmark last November.
The Social Democrats on their end, dropped 1.1 percent points to 17 percent.
If the poll results were replicated on election day, it could be the first time in history where no party won more than 20 percent of the votes.
Jussi Westinen, a social scientist at E2 Research told Helsinki Times: “The Finns Party’s message has hit home with certain groups of voters teetering between the Social Democrats and Finns Party.”