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The opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) has widened its lead to nearly six percentage points over Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's National Coalition Party (NCP) in the latest monthly survey of voter sentiment commissioned by Yle and carried out by pollster Taloustutkimus.
Over 23 percent of respondents said they would opt for the Antti Lindtman-led SDP if a parliamentary election were to be held now, a 0.2 percentage point increase on the last time out.
Growing dissatisfaction with the current government was reflected in the latest poll results, with Orpo's NCP losing 0.9 percentage points to leave the senior coalition party well adrift of the SDP with an election hovering on the horizon.
The NCP's falling numbers are mainly driven by weakening support among women, noted Tuomo Turja, research director at Taloustutkimus.
"Among men, the National Coalition Party's support has actually risen slightly, while among women it has clearly fallen," Turja said.
Altogether support for the four governing parties slumped to 39.1 percent, down from 39.4 percent a month earlier.
Finns will go to the polls in April next year to vote in parliamentary elections, with Lindtman now looking increasingly likely to be the leader of a new coalition government.
Finns Party bouncing back
While the NCP saw a dip in support, there was an increase for its coalition partner, the Riikka Purra-led Finns Party.
The Finns leapfrogged the opposition Centre Party in the latest standings after seeing a 0.7 percentage point bump in backing, while Antti Kaikkonen's opposition Centre dropped back to fourth place.
According to Turja, the Finns Party's numbers have been boosted in particular by increased support from men under 35.
"Support is also coming from voters of the National Coalition Party and Christian Democrats, that is, the other government parties," Turja said.
Among the smaller parties, the opposition Left Alliance and Greens both saw their support rise slightly to 11.4 and 8.6 percent respectively. Backing for the other minor parliamentary groups remained nearly unchanged.
The debate about Green Party leader Sofia Virta's absence from parliament due to her participation in a reality TV show does not appear to have had much impact on her party's support.
Taloustutkimus interviewed 2,433 adults from mainland Finland between 4 and 30 June, with 76 percent of respondents stating which party they would vote for if the parliamentary elections were held now. The margin of error is 1.9 percentage points in either direction.
