Finland's right-wing opposition leads in poll ahead of April 2 election

By Essi Lehto

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's right-wing opposition National Coalition Party held a narrow lead among voters ahead of an election for parliament on April 2, an opinion poll published by daily Helsingin Sanomat showed on Tuesday.

Facing recession and soaring consumer price inflation, Prime Minister Sanna Marin is fighting to stay in power, with her left-wing Social Democratic Party (SDP) tied for second place in the poll.

The fiscally conservative National Coalition was on track to become the biggest group with 20.8% support, up from 17% four years ago, according to the Feb. 13-March 17 Kantar Public survey of 2,584 voters, one of few polls published this year.

Marin's SDP and the nationalist Finns Party meanwhile ran neck-and-neck at 19.3% each, a gain of 1.6 percentage points for the former and 1.8 points for the latter since 2019.

With as many as 10 parties currently represented in parliament, the ultimate formation of a government will likely be subject to post-election coalition talks lasting weeks.

The SDP, which governs at the head of a five-party coalition, is campaigning on a promise to improve public services and in particular spend more on national health care, including in rural parts of Finland.

Opposition leaders Petteri Orpo of the National Coalition and Riikka Purra of the Finns Party meanwhile accuse Marin's government of lavish public spending and are calling for fiscal austerity to restore government finances.

Spurred on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Finland last year broke with decades of defence and security policy when it applied for membership of the NATO military alliance, a move supported by almost all members of parliament.

Turkey and Hungary, the only NATO member countries that have yet to formally endorse Finland's membership, have signalled that they plan to do so in the coming weeks.

(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Anne Kauranen, Terje Solsvik and Bernadette Baum)