Denmark’s election on Tuesday ended inconclusively, leaving Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s future uncertain.
The campaign had focused on domestic issues, rather than her handling of U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambitions toward Greenland.
Official results confirmed Ms Frederiksen’s centre-left Social Democrats, along with her two partners in the outgoing government, lost ground compared to the 2022 election.
Neither the left-leaning nor right-leaning blocs secured a parliamentary majority. This outcome has propelled experienced Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, a former prime minister, into the pivotal role of ‘kingmaker’.
His centrist Moderate party, with 14 lawmakers in the 179-seat parliament, is in a position to determine whether Frederiksen can serve a third term at the helm of the European Union and NATO country.
Frederiksen said that she is ready to stay on as prime minister. “The world is unsettled. There are strong winds around us,” she said. “Denmark needs a stable government, a competent government. We are ready to take the lead.”
Løkke Rasmussen called on rivals on the left and right to climb down from some of the positions they staked out in the campaign, and “come and play with us.”
Denmark “is a small country of 6 million people in a world of 8 billion, which is in upheaval — and there is war in Iran, and there is war in Ukraine,” he said. He argued that “We are one tribe. We must come together. We must not be divided.”
But Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, the best-placed center-right challenger to Frederiksen, made clear that he and his Liberal party don’t intend to go into government with her Social Democrats again.
The Social Democrats remained the biggest single party by some distance, but with 21.9 per cent of the vote — well below the 27.5 per cent they took in the 2022 election.
The 48-year-old Frederiksen is known for strong support of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion and for a restrictive approach to migration — continuing what has become a tradition in Danish politics.
Frederiksen called the election in February, several months before she had to. She apparently hoped that her resolute image in the standoff over Trump’s push for control of Greenland, rallying European allies behind Denmark, would help her with voters.
Her support had previously waned as the cost of living rose, something that, along with pensions and a potential wealth tax, has been a prominent campaign issue.
No single party had been expected to come anywhere near winning a majority. Denmark’s system of proportional representation typically produces coalition governments, traditionally made up of several parties from either the “red bloc” on the left or the “blue bloc” on the right, after weeks of negotiations.
