Denmark’s incumbent Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who was leading centre-left bloc, has managed to retain power as her “red bloc” of parties secured the required 90 seats, clinching a one-seat majority, in a nail-biter of an election, and though her Social Democrats party unexpectedly gained two seats and secured its best result in two decades, she is likely to create a broader coalition to form the government.
Frederiksen will now tender the government’s resignation to Queen Margrethe II, said a BBC report.
As vote counting started on Tuesday, it was uncertain right until the end whether Frederiksen’s “red bloc” or the right-of-centre “blue bloc”, led by Jakob Ellemann-Jensen’s Liberals, would win a majority.
Opinion polls had predicted a weak performance by the Social Democrats, but they instead gained two seats compared to the last election, winning 27.5 per cent of the votes.
Earlier, there were suggestions that if neither group won a majority, the recently formed Moderates party — led by two-time former Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen — would tilt the balance and play key role in government formation.
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The Moderates did make noteworthy gains and became the third-biggest party, a huge accomplishment since it did not even exist five months ago.
Frederiksen’s coalition won 87 seats in mainland Denmark, one seat in the Faroe Islands and two seats in Greenland — an autonomous Danish dependent territory of Denmark that often elects left-wing candidates, taking their tally to 90 seats in the 179-seat Folketinget clinching a one-seat majority.
Frederiksen’s Social Democrats gained two seats and polled more 27.5% of the vote, making it the biggest party in the Folketing.
“Social democracy had its best election in over 20 years. We are a party for the whole of Denmark,” Frederiksen said in her election night speech in Copenhagen.
She added that although her red coalition had come out on top, she wished to reach out to the centre to create a broader coalition.
Frederiksen was forced to call an early election in October after an outrage over a highly critical report of her government’s handling of a country-wide mink cull at fur farms at the time of pandemic peak. There were fears that a mutated form of coronavirus found in mink could hamper the search for a vaccine but in the report’s findings, the government’s order to kill up to 17 million mink in 2020 was found to have no legal basis.
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The report rattled Frederiksen’s coalition, with one of the parties threatening to withdraw its support if she did not call a general election.
Frederiksen is due to inform Queen Margrethe of the election results, but instead of carrying on as prime minister she will submit the government’s resignation and ask for a so-called queen’s round or ‘dronningerunde’ to start.
Frederiksen told supporters early on Wednesday that if appointed she would seek to form a broad-based government, adding, “When the Social Democrats say something, it is something we follow through on.”
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