Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democratic Party won just 38 seats in the 179-seat Parliament. However, her coalition of left-wing parties is still the biggest bloc with 84 seats. The bloc, however, is still six seats short of the required 90 seats for a majority.

When the result of the general election of Denmark were released today, the ruling Social Democratic Party found itself at the receiving end. The party, winning just 38 seats in the 179-seat Parliament, faced its worst electoral result since 1903. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen submitted her resignation to the King.

However, not everything has ended for Frederiksen. Her coalition of left-wing parties is still the biggest bloc with 84 seats in Parliament, as compared to the 77 seats of right-wing bloc, with both of them falling short of the required 90 seats for a majority.

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This leaves both of the blocs to be dependent on the unaligned Moderates Party, that has won 14 seats. This party is led by Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, a centrist by ideology, who is expected to lend his support to Frederiksen. However, the negotiations are not going to be easy.

What went wrong for Frederiksen?

Recently, Frederiksen had presented a strong image of herself through her defiant stance towards US President Donald Trump’s repeated ambitions to acquire Denmark’s semi-autonomous territory Greenland. However, the domestic policy issues overshadowed this.

Voters expressed concerns over the environment, immigration, the cost-of-living crisis and welfare.

Polarised decisions

Analysts attribute Frederiksen’s electoral defeat to her polarising economic decisions, that include: the controversial scrapping of a public holiday, tax cuts for high earners, and a last-minute proposal to introduce a wealth tax, which failed to resonate with voters.

The result also showed a broader trend where voters are moving towards Right-wing parties, especially for their strong opposition to immigration. The vote share of the Right-wing parties increased from 14.4 per cent in 2022 to 17 per cent in the recent polls.

Though lately Frederiksen had also launched tough immigration policies, but it was ’too little-too late’ for voters to resonate with. Additionally, there were broader economic concerns among citizens. The right-wing parties focused their campaign on inflation and rising living costs. They also promised to cut fuel taxes.

A ray of hope for Frederiksen

Despite the electoral setback, Frederiksen’s Social Democrats emerged as the biggest party in elections with 21.9 per cent vote share, showing that she still remains the most popular leader of the country.

Frederiksen acknowledged the fractured electoral verdict during a Wednesday debate, saying that the result ruled out the possibility of forming a traditional right- or left-wing government.

“So what is left is that we need to cooperate. That is the message here,” she said.

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