10-07-2012 | Poll shows the coalition losing public approval
A brand new public opinion poll shows that the opposition would gain 10 per cent of the vote from the coalition if there was a parliamentary election today. If this were to happen, the current governmental coalition would lose its majority command of the parliament.
The sitting majority coalition has taken a beating in the latest public opinion poll, conducted by Gallup Faroe Islands for the newspaper, Sosialurin. The poll showed that the coalition would lose four of its nineteen members of parliament. It would therefore only retain fifteen of the thirty-three seats in the Faroese parliament.
According to Sosialurin, the main reason for the backlash is that the electorate disagrees with the radical political changes implemented by the government since the coalition assumed power after the parliamentary election in November.
The most controversial changes relate to the tax system. On the one hand, the government has implemented a flatter tax system by providing the greatest tax relief for high earners. At the same time, it has changed the taxation of retirement pensions so that they are taxed at the time of contribution rather than the time of withdrawal as they were previously.
The poll shows that the liberal Unionist Party, which is currently in control of the government, would lose some of its votes but would keep its mandate of eight seats. However, the largest party in the coalition, the conservative People's Party, would lose three of its eight seats in parliament. Two smaller parties are also part of the coalition; the poll shows that the faith-based Centre Party would keep its two seats, whereas the centrist Self-Rule Party would lose its only seat in parliament if there was an election today.
The winners of the poll were the two opposition parties, the Social Democratic Party and the independence-oriented Republican Party, each of which would go from having six to eight seats in parliament.
(Source: sosialurin.fo)
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