Petteri Orpo, center-right rival of Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, has voiced satisfaction with the results of the latest opinion poll, hours ahead of the beginning of the country’s April 2 parliamentary election.
"We have done a great campaign. We have the best candidates all over Finland and we are first in polls so I'm optimistic," the 53-year-old National Coalition party leader told a French news network on Saturday.
Orpo added that he wants “to fix” the Finnish economy and “boost economic growth." According to him, Marin is neither worried about the economy nor about national debt.
An election poster of Social Democratic Party SDP chair and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin is displayed on an campaign booth in Helsinki, on March 31, 2023
© AFP 2023 / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND
He spoke after the survey published by a Finnish broadcaster put the National Coalition in top place, with a thin lead at 19.8%. The nationalist eurosceptic Finns Party of Riikka Purra polled 19.5%, while the center-left Social Democrats led by Prime Minister Sanna Marin took third place at 18.7%.
Tuomo Turja of the Finnish polling firm Taloustutkimus told the broadcaster that “It is a very exciting situation and it's hard to say at the moment which party will be the biggest on election day.”
In a separate interview with the news network, Finnish journalist Marko Junkkari described Marin as a “polarizing character.”
“She has fans like a rock star but on the other hand she has a lot of people who can't stand her,”Junkkari added.
The survey followed a poll conducted by a Finnish newspaper late last year, which found that 64% of respondents felt Marin had done a “very” or “fairly” good job as prime minister.
The 37-year-old took the reins of the Social Democratic party – and the Finnish premiership – in 2019.
Last year, she was filmed dancing in Finnish nightclubs in a suggestive manner, which earned her the cognomens “Party PM” and “Party Sanna.” In yet another video, Marin’s friends were heard shouting that many interpreted as “flour gang,” with “flour” being the slang name for cocaine in Finland. The accusations forced Marin to formally deny taking drugs and even take a drug test to prove her innocence. The test results came back negative.
In November 2022, Marin was ultimately cleared of misconduct following a protracted official inquiry that lasted several months.
This came after the Finnish prime minister was caught partying during a surge in coronavirus infections, when the rest of her country was told to stay home and “flatten the curve.”