Denmark, bitter victory for the Social Democrats, down and without a majority
Prime Minister Frederiksen is running for a third term ('Disappointed by the votes but ready to take on the responsibility of prime minister') but her party scores its worst result in over a century. The next coalition is a puzzle, with former premier Rasmussen's Moderates the needle in the balance.
from our correspondent Michele Pignatelli
COPENHAGEN - The eve's polls were not wrong. The Social Democrats of outgoing Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen have won the Danish general election, albeit with their worst result since 1903: 21.9% of the vote. And forming a government coalition in Denmark's highly fragmented unicameral parliament will be very complex, as neither of the two opposing blocs, centre-left and centre-right, has a majority, with the centre-left leading by seven seats, 84 to 77 out of 179.
However, it is difficult, at least for now, to imagine the next government without Frederiksen, who would thus obtain a third term in office. Not least because his main opponent, the leader of the Venstre Liberals and current Defence Minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, has in turn obtained the worst result in his party's history (10.1%). The third government party, the Moderates of Foreign Minister and former prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (,7.7%), also fell, but since they are not openly aligned with either of the two blocs, with their 14 seats they will be the needle of the scales.
Among the other parties, on the left is the exploit of the Ecologist Left, which with 11.4% of the vote is second, on the right the overbearing return of the populists of the Danish People's Party, which rose to 9.1% from 2.6 in 2022.
The reactions
'I am ready to take on the responsibilities of prime minister,' the outgoing premier commented warmly. Of course I am sorry that I did not get more votes, but we expected it: we had to face the war, we were threatened by the American president and in these almost seven years (since 2019, the year of the start of his first term in office, ndr) we have lost four percentage points: I think it is OK.
As for Rasmussen, he called on his political opponents, both left and right, to take a step back from some of the positions they took during the election campaign and 'join us'. Denmark, said the former prime minister, "is a small country of six million people in a world of eight billion, which is in turmoil: there is war in Iran and there is war in Ukraine. We are one tribe. We must unite. We must not be divided".
