(Copenhagen) At the end of the suspense, the left-wing bloc led by Social Democrat Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen won a majority of a single seat in the legislative elections in Denmark, but the head of government kept her hand extended towards the center.
Updated yesterday at 9:32 p.m.
After a long, undecided election night until the last votes were counted, the coalition of five left-wing parties won 87 seats, to which must be added two seats from Greenland and one from the Faroe Islands, forming a majority of 90 seats.
The Social Democrats remain, by far, the leading party in the country but unlike the last three years no longer intend to form a minority government, multiplying the appeals of the foot both within their bloc and in the center and on the right.
They won 50 of the 179 mandates in the Folketing, increasing their 2019 score by 1.6 points with 27.5% of the vote.
“We have achieved the best election in more than twenty years”, welcomed Mme Frederiksen in front of his supporters, overheated by a victory obtained in the snatch.
The coalition bringing together the right and the extreme right has 72 seats, plus a seat in the Faroe Islands.
“The election results show that there is once again a red majority in parliament,” noted Liberal Party leader Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, whose party fell ten points.
RITZAU SCANPIX PHOTO, VIA REUTERS
Votes are counted after the close of business in Denmark.
The far right, divided into three parties, won 14.4% of the vote.
The long influential Danish People’s Party (DF), which pranced above 20% just a few years ago, has fallen to around 2.6%, its worst result since entering parliament in 1998.
It is a new party founded by the former Minister of Immigration, Inger Støjberg, the Democrats of Denmark, which wins the day with 8% and 14 mandates.
With 16 seats, the centrist Moderates party of former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, which hoped to play a decisive role as arbiter, entered parliament. He said he was ready to discuss government participation.
Liberal leader Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, who missed his bid to become prime minister, also said he was ready to talk about collaboration, but expressed skepticism.
A phase of long negotiations is coming: Mme Frederiksen announced that she would present her resignation to the Queen on Wednesday, who should ask her to form a new government.
mink crisis
“The election has shown that there is no longer a majority behind the government in its current form,” she said. The Social Democrats have hitherto been alone in government.
Since the start of the campaign, Mette Frederiksen has multiplied calls to the center and the right to build a government beyond traditional divisions.
The early poll was prompted by the “mink crisis”: a party supporting the minority government threatened to bring it down if it did not call an election to ensure voters’ confidence after the decision, which was later declared illegal , to cull the country’s huge herd of mink to fight the coronavirus.
Inflation at its highest in 40 years, high energy prices and the health system had dominated the campaign.
In a country that has championed rigorous migration for more than twenty years, including within the social-democratic party of Mme Frederiksen, migration issues were only rarely mentioned.
The government, whose objective is not to take in any refugees, is working on setting up a management center for asylum seekers in Rwanda.
In a country where turnout is traditionally high, 84.1% of some 4.2 million voters turned out to vote, a very slight decline.