Polls have opened as Danish voters cast their ballots in a general election, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeking a third term at the helm of the country
More than 4.3 million people are eligible to vote for the new Folketing, or parliament, in Copenhagen, which is elected for a four-year term.
Denmark’s single-chamber parliament has 179 seats. Of those, 175 go to lawmakers from Denmark itself and two each for representatives from thinly populated Greenland and the kingdom’s other semiautonomous territory, the Faroe Islands.
Frederiksen called the election in February, several months before she had to in apparent hopes that her resolute image in the crisis over Greenland would help her with voters in the European Union and NATO member country.
The election comes after a standoff with US President Donald Trump over the future of the kingdom’s semiautonomous territory of Greenland. Greenland, which took up much of the government’s energy in recent months, hasn’t been a significant issue in the campaign because there is broad agreement on its place in the kingdom.
Frederiksen warned in January that an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of NATO. However, the crisis has simmered down, at least for now.
After Trump backed down on threats to impose tariffs on Denmark and other European countries that opposed the U.S. taking control of the vast Arctic island, the US, Denmark and Greenland started technical talks on an Arctic security deal.
Support for Frederiksen had waned as the cost of living rose in her second term, something that, along with pensions and a potential wealth tax, has been a prominent campaign issue.
The 48-year-old center-left Social Democrat is known for strong support of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion and for a restrictive approach to migration continuing a tradition in Danish politics that now goes back two decades.
Seeking to counter pressure from the right and pointing to a possible surge in migration because of the Iran war, Frederiksen announced proposals this month that include a potential “emergency brake” on asylum and tighter controls on criminals who lack legal residence.
Her government had already unveiled a plan to allow the deportation of foreigners who have been sentenced to at least one year in prison for serious crimes.
Meanwhile, two center-right challengers hope to oust Frederiksen as Prime Minister. One is in her current government; Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen of the Liberal, or Venstre, party, which headed several recent administrations.
The other is Alex Vanopslagh, 34, of the opposition Liberal Alliance, which calls for lower taxes and less bureaucracy, and for Denmark to abandon its refusal to use nuclear power. However, a recent admission from Vanopslagh to taking cocaine earlier in his time as party leader may have dented his chances.
No single party is 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.
The red, left-wing parties being the Social Democrats (Socialdemokratiet), the Danish Social Liberal Party (Radikale Venstre), Green Left (Socialistisk Folkeparti or SF) and the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten), and the blue, right-wing parties being Venstre (Denmark’s Liberal party), the Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti), the Conservative People’s Party (Det Konservative Folkeparti), Liberal Alliance and Nye Borgerlige (New Right).
Frederiksen’s outgoing three-party administration was the first in decades to straddle the political divide. After the last election, in 2022, the Social Democrats, the then newly formed centre-right Moderates and conservative Denmark’s Liberal Party broke with convention to form a centrist government.
It remains to be seen whether this election will result in a repeat, with the centrist Moderate party of Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen possibly acting as the kingmaker.
Rasmussen Appoints Himself As “Royal Investigator”
At the 11th hour, Moderates leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen, appointed himself “royal investigator;” the role that is usually held by the person who goes on to become Prime Minister and who looks into whether a government can be formed.
Rasmussen, who has twice been Denmark’s Prime Minister and is currently the Foreign Minister, disclosed this in an interview published last night.
“I am not a candidate for Prime Minister, but I would like to be the one who negotiates a government basis for a government across the middle. Not to form a government, but to investigate whether a government basis can be created. Therefore, I am announcing myself as a royal investigator if we in the Moderates have the decisive votes.”
Lars Løkke Rasmussen
Speaking to reporters after he had voted, Rasmussen said that the election “is basically about Denmark preparing itself to a world which is absolutely more uncertain than we were used to in the past.”
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