Denmark election: PM Mette Frederiksen’s bloc fails to win majority
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is still projected to win a third term after standing up to the US president over Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s centre-left Social Democrats are on track for their worst electoral performance in more than a century, as the 48-year-old seeks a third term in office while facing challenges from the political right and left over issues such as immigration and the cost of living.
With nearly all the votes tallied on Tuesday, Frederiksen’s Social Democrats are projected to come first with 38 seats in the legislature, compared with 50 four years earlier.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items- list 1 of 4Greenland rejects Trump’s offer to send US hospital ship to Arctic island
- list 2 of 4No snow, no ski season: Greenland’s warmest January shuts Nuuk resort
- list 3 of 4Europe’s hard right fractures over US-Israel war on Iran
- list 4 of 4How Trump’s unchecked power has changed the world
The figure marks the worst result for the Social Democrats in 120 years, leaving the party and the others in the left-leaning bloc with 84 seats, short of the 90 needed for an outright majority in the 179-seat Folketing (parliament).
Right-leaning parties also failed to exceed the threshold, with 77 seats, putting Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars Lokke Rasmussen’s centrist Moderate Party on track to emerge as potential kingmakers, with 14 seats.
Thorny negotiations are expected in the days and weeks ahead to build a coalition government backed by a majority in parliament.
The far-right Danish People’s Party, which campaigned on barring Muslim immigration and abolishing the country’s petrol tax, surged to 9 percent of the vote, up from a previous slump in 2022.
Four additional overseas seats held by Denmark’s two autonomous territories – two for Greenland and two for the Faroe Islands – could also tip the balance if the election result is very close.
Frederiksen was praised for her leadership when United States President Donald Trump threatened to seize Greenland, and called early elections in February, several months before she had to, in the apparent hope of capitalising on the moment.
But the issue did not figure largely in the election, which was dominated by economic issues.
The election repeated a pattern that has become familiar in Europe in recent years, with a centre-left establishment seeking to fend off populist challenges from the left and the right amid growing dissatisfaction over cost-of-living issues.
Frederiksen alienated some leftist voters by taking a harsh stance on immigration that nonetheless failed to win over the right, who criticised her as too lenient.