After a count, which initially showed the left-wing “red bloc” would fall short of a majority, Frederiksen and her supporting parties are expected to win the 90 seats needed for a majority in the 179-seat parliament. “I’m so incredibly happy and proud,” Frederiksen said Tuesday night, celebrating the party’s best election result in more than 20 years. In a political landscape split between 14 parties, Frederiksen’s Social Democrats and the other left-wing red bloc parties secured 87 seats, while the rival right-wing “blue bloc” ended up with 72 seats. The red bloc also received one seat from the overseas autonomous territory of the Faroe Islands, with two more expected from Greenland. However, the red bloc’s narrow victory does not necessarily mean that Frederiksen’s government will simply continue. Both the Social Democrats and the Social Liberal parties have said they want to explore the possibility of forming a broad left-right coalition to steer the country through difficult times. Frederiksen underlined in her victory speech on Tuesday night that she would seek to form a centrist government. “It is predicted by many that there will be chaos, but chaos is the last thing Denmark needs,” he said. “That’s why I call on all parties… to seek cooperation, to seek solutions, to assert your influence. We must get through the uncertain times safely, and dear Denmark, we must get through the uncertain times together.” Election night was dramatic until the end. With just 1 percent of the vote left to be counted, some forecasts suggested the red bloc was just a few hundred votes away from reaching 87 seats. And election night had been preceded by a similarly uncharacteristically exciting and chaotic campaign that at times seemed to foreshadow the twists and turns of the latest season of popular TV political drama “Borgen.” Frederiksen’s Social Democrats secured 27.5% of the vote and 50 seats in parliament. That put them ahead of Jakob Ellemann-Jensen’s Liberal Party, which secured 13.3 percent of the vote, or 24 seats. The new party of Lars Løkke Rasmussen – the former centre-right prime minister who was defeated by Frederiksen in 2019 – rose to third place, winning 16 seats. Polls had shown in recent weeks that neither the red nor the blue bloc would be able to form a government without Rasmussen’s support, making him essential for coalition talks. He used this position during the campaign to call for a broad coalition of more moderate parties from both the red and blue blocs, a move that would upend the nation’s postwar political order.
Dramatic campaign
Domestic issues dominated the campaign, ranging from tax cuts and the need to hire more nurses to financially supporting Danes amid inflation and soaring energy prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Once a key issue, immigration has fallen off the agenda, in part because the Social Democrats have vowed to remain tough on immigration, depriving right-wing parties of a potential rallying point. Despite a series of scandals rocking Frederiksen’s party, he fared much better than predicted in recent polls — rising from 48 seats to 50. The scandals include a 2020 order to cull all of the country’s farmed mink over fears they could spread a mutated variant of the coronavirus, a policy that devastated Europe’s biggest fur exporter. A committee appointed by parliament said in June that the government had no legal justification for the slaughter and had made “grossly misleading” statements when it ordered the sector closed. A left-wing party backing Frederiksen’s minority government withdrew its support as a result of the report, forcing Frederiksen to call a snap election on Tuesday. Her centre-right rivals, however, have also lost ground, with Conservative leader Søren Pape Poulsen hit by revelations about lies told by his ex-husband and the Liberals suffering internal divisions. This article has been updated with more details.
