{"id":47919,"date":"2026-03-25T07:07:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T07:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/47919\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T07:07:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T07:07:28","slug":"danish-election-produces-inconclusive-result-that-leaves-prime-ministers-future-unclear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/47919\/","title":{"rendered":"Danish election produces inconclusive result that leaves prime minister\u2019s future unclear"},"content":{"rendered":"

COPENHAGEN \u2013 Denmark\u2019s election Tuesday ended in an inconclusive result that left the prime minister\u2019s future unclear, after a campaign that focused on bread-and-butter issues rather than her handling of the crisis over U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> \u2019s ambitions toward Greenland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Official results showed that Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen\u2019s center-left Social Democrats lost ground compared with the last election in 2022, as did her two partners in the outgoing government.<\/p>\n

Neither left-leaning nor right-leaning blocs won a majority in parliament. That left experienced Foreign Minister Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen, a former prime minister, in the role of kingmaker.<\/p>\n

His centrist Moderate party, with 14 lawmakers in the 179-seat parliament, is in a position to determine whether Frederiksen can serve a third term at the helm of the European Union and NATO country.<\/p>\n

Frederiksen said that she is ready to stay on as prime minister. \u201cThe world is unsettled. There are strong winds around us,\u201d she said. “Denmark needs a stable government, a competent government. We are ready to take the lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kingmaker calls on rivals to \u2018come and play with us\u2019<\/p>\n

L\u00f8kke Rasmussen called on rivals on the left and right to climb down from some of the positions they staked out in the campaign, and \u201ccome and play with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denmark \u201cis a small country of 6 million people in a world of 8 billion, which is in upheaval \u2014 and there is war in Iran, and there is war in Ukraine,\u201d he said. He argued that \u201cWe are one tribe. We must come together. We must not be divided.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, the best-placed center-right challenger to Frederiksen, made clear that he and his Liberal party don’t intend to go into government with her Social Democrats again. <\/p>\n

The Social Democrats remained the biggest single party by some distance, but with 21.9% of the vote \u2014 well below the 27.5% they took in the 2022 election.<\/p>\n

The 48-year-old Frederiksen is known for strong support of Ukraine<\/a> in its defense against Russia\u2019s invasion and for a restrictive approach to migration \u2014 continuing what has become a tradition in Danish politics.<\/p>\n

Frederiksen called the election early<\/p>\n

Frederiksen called the election in February<\/a>, several months before she had to. She apparently hoped that her resolute image in the standoff over Trump\u2019s push for control of Greenland, rallying European allies behind Denmark, would help her with voters.<\/p>\n

Her support had previously waned as the cost of living rose, something that, along with pensions and a potential wealth tax, has been a prominent campaign issue.<\/p>\n

No single party had been expected to come anywhere near winning a majority. Denmark\u2019s system of proportional representation typically produces coalition governments, traditionally made up of several parties from either the \u201cred bloc\u201d on the left or the \u201cblue bloc\u201d on the right, after weeks of negotiations.<\/p>\n

Frederiksen\u2019s outgoing administration was the first in decades to straddle the left-right divide. <\/p>\n

Social Democrat lawmaker Morten Klessen said the outgoing government had performed well, but that \u201cthere\u2019s been a lot of trouble in Europe and I think our government has had a lot of focus about Ukraine and I think we have lost a little bit in domestic votes for that.\u201d He argued that \u201cwe need Mette Frederiksen in Europe for solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frederiksen herself said she had hoped for a better result, but it was normal for a party seeking a third term to lose ground. She compared Tuesday’s result with the 25.9% of the vote her party took in 2019, when she became prime minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been in charge of this wonderful country for nearly seven years,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have weathered the pandemic; we have had to deal with war. We have been threatened by the American president, and in those nearly seven years, we have seen a four percent decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenland wasn\u2019t a big issue in the campaign<\/p>\n

Greenland, which took up much of the government\u2019s energy in recent months, wasn\u2019t a significant issue in the campaign because there is broad agreement on its place in the kingdom.<\/p>\n

Frederiksen warned in January that an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of NATO<\/a>. But the crisis has simmered down, at least for now. <\/p>\n

After Trump backed down<\/a> on threats to impose tariffs on Denmark and other European countries that opposed the U.S. taking control of the vast Arctic island, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland started technical talks<\/a> on an Arctic security deal. <\/p>\n

Denmark\u2019s single-chamber parliament, the Folketing, is elected for a four-year term. Lawmakers from Denmark hold 175 of its seats, while two each go to representatives from thinly populated Greenland and the kingdom\u2019s other semiautonomous territory, the Faroe Islands.<\/p>\n

More than 4.3 million people were eligible to vote.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Moulson reported from Berlin. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COPENHAGEN \u2013 Denmark\u2019s election Tuesday ended in an inconclusive result that left the prime minister\u2019s future unclear, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[25178,184,4930,57,3933,3396,1161],"class_list":["post-47919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-greenland","tag-alex-vanopslagh","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-greenland","tag-lars-lokke-rasmussen","tag-mette-frederiksen","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116288555916819836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}