When US President Donald Trump threatened to use the might of the United States to annex Greenland, it had an unintended consequence.
The relentless campaign of denigration by Mr Trump thrust Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen onto the global stage and might have saved her political career.
Just months ago, Ms Frederiksen was flailing in national polls.
Then came Mr Trump’s blustering diplomatic offensive, in which he threatened to take Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, “the easy way or the hard way”.
Donald Trump’s Greenland threats benefited Mette Frederiksen’s political standings domestically. (Reuters: Christian Hartmann)
When Ms Frederiksen pushed back against a barrage of belittling from the US president, her polling jumped, almost overnight.
Her Social Democrats party went from a historic low of 16 per cent in the polls to about 21 per cent which, in the complex Danish political system, could be enough for her to cling to power.
With her numbers on the rise, she called a snap election to be held this week.
Ms Frederiksen is hoping to ride a wave of anti-Trump sentiment to victory, following a similar electoral playbook to Prime Minister Mark Carney in Canada and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Frederiksen had been ‘sleeping with her boots on’
Elisabet Svane, a political analyst and columnist for the Danish daily newspaper Politiken, said Ms Frederiksen had capitalised on a rare political moment.
“There’s a saying in Denmark, ‘You sleep with your boots on — if your moment comes then be ready.’ And that’s what she’s done,” Ms Svane told ABC News from Copenhagen.
“Her popularity rose after Greenland not because people might’ve found her more sympathetic, but because I think they believed in her leadership.
“I think a lot of Danes might not like her, but they trust her leadership in difficult times, so it will be interesting to see if people vote for her leadership or more domestic issues.”
Mette Frederiksen during a visit to Greenland last year. (Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters)
Ms Frederiksen was first elected in 2019 and is seeking a third term. As the leader of a centre-left party, she has faced criticism from all sides of the political spectrum.
Shortly after assuming office, she angered human rights groups by taking a hardline stance on immigration so she could govern in a coalition with Danish conservative party, Venstre.
In 2020, she signed off on the killing of about 17 million farm-raised mink, claiming it could stop the spread of a coronavirus mutation. The directive was later found to have no legal grounds.
Her government was embroiled in controversy again when in 2023 it scrapped a public holiday so it could increase the national defence budget.
Loading…
Ms Svane said government representatives were privately conceding that the leadership was tired and out of ideas.
But she said Ms Fredriksen was able to use the Greenland saga to breathe life into an administration that was heading for a certain defeat.
“What I’m hearing from sources is that they just couldn’t see a way forward,” Ms Svane said.
“Foreign policy has always been where she’s strongest and people were telling me, ‘Oh, if only she has another crisis then things will be perfect.”’
Greenland barely registers in Danish debate
Despite the prime minister’s ascent to global stardom, the issue of Greenland and Mr Trump has barely registered in the Danish election campaign.
In the final leader’s debate last week, Greenland wasn’t mentioned.
Instead, issues like accessible drinking water, agriculture, the environment and taxes have been the main talking points.
University of Copenhagen elections researcher Kaspar Møller Hansen said the prime minister had used the popularity of her Greenland stance to strengthen her message on domestic issues.
“The rallying around the flag was very strong and we saw in a few weeks her popularity rose and she was able to convert that popularity into the domestic agenda,” he said.
“The international stuff hasn’t really played a role in this election, but it might be in the background for voters and it’s had an influence on how people perceive her.”
Despite pundits predicting a victory, if polls prove accurate, Ms Frederiksen could simultaneously lead her party to a win and its worst electoral result in more than 100 years.
Crowded ballot likely to complicate results
Denmark is home to about 6 million people.
Its election ballot is crowded and there are likely to be 12 parties represented in the parliament.
If Ms Frederiksen’s Social Democrats secure about 40 seats in the 179-seat parliament, they should be able to scrape together enough support to govern in a coalition.
“Even with her polling now, it wouldn’t be a good result but the way parliament is at the moment she could still stay in power,” Professor Møller Hansen said.
“It seems very much like she’ll continue as prime minister along with the foreign minister from the moderates party and then they can figure out if they go a little bit left or a little big right, and end up with a minority government, which is what we usually have in Denmark.”
Mette Frederiksen seized on bolstered popularity and called a snap election in late February. (Reuters: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix)
But Ms Svane warned that nothing in politics was set in stone and Ms Frederiksen’s response to Mr Trump’s Greenland push had not guaranteed her an electoral triumph.
“Winston Churchill said you never waste a crisis,” she said.
“But at the end of the day he lost the election in 1945 after the war, so you can be a really strong leader and guide your country through a crisis but on election day you don’t know what people will vote for.”