Britta THOMSEN

Adjunct Professor, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Politician and Former Member of European Parliament

When Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called for a snap election at the end of February, 12 parties were ready to run for seats in the Folketing, the Danish parliament. With a 2 per cent threshold for entering parliament, the election on 24 March made history, with all 12 parties winning seats. With a traditionally strong turnout, voters’ participation was at 85 per cent.

The good news is that despite a loss of 5,7 per cent, Frederiksen’s Social Democratic Party still is the strongest with 21,8 per cent. Right after the election, she announced that she is ready to remain prime minister, acknowledging however, that forming a new government will not be easy.

Each of the nine running parties received less than 10 per cent of the votes. The Green Party obtained 11,6 per cent, followed by Venstre, the Liberal Party, with 10,1 per cent of the vote. The party that won more votes than in the 2022 election was the nationalist and right-wing populist Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti: DF), led by former member of the European Parliament Morten Messerschmidt. His party went from 2,6 per cent to 9,1 per cent. The DF belongs to the Patriots Group in the European Parliament, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was among the first to congratulate him on the result. 

Following recent high energy prices due to the Iran war, the DF claimed it would help people cover higher fuel prices. On the morning of election day, the party invited people to take their cars to one of 200 selected petrol stations where DF had paid to have petrol sold at reduced prices. While in Denmark, voters can choose to cast their vote for a party or for a person on the party list, Messerschmidt received the most popular votes, followed by Fredriksen.

The election result did not give either of the two traditional blocs, the left-leaning red or the right-leaning blue bloc, a clear majority. The red bloc won 84 seats and the blue bloc 77. The four parliamentarians elected from Greenland and the Faroe Islands delivered two seats to each of the blocs. Nevertheless, for neither bloc was it enough to reach the magic 90 seats for a majority in the 179-seat parliament.

Outside the traditional blocs, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars Løkke Rasmussen, had left Venstre to form his own party, Moderaterne, named after the fictional political party from the famous Danish TV series ‘Borgen’. The party aims to break the traditional red-and-blue bloc policy by forming a government in the political centre. His position will most likely determine what the next government will look like.

Frederiksen called the snap election after enjoying a surge in the polls following her clash with US President Donald Trump about his aggressive threats to annex Greenland. After many months of declining opinion polls and a major defeat in the local elections in November last year, she chose to call parliamentary elections when the polls were going up for her. In fact, she could have waited until November 2026 to call for elections. After three years in coalition with two liberal parties, however, she decided that it was time for her party to present a more traditional Social Democratic profile.

The two coalition parties, Venstre, which usually represents the interests of Danish farmers, and the newer Moderaterne, lost many votes. Venster leader Troels Lund Poulsen announced he would not join a new coalition government with the Social Democrats and parties of the red bloc, and that he would prefer a government based on the blue bloc. Even though Moderaterne had suffered a string of setbacks in the election, Lars Løkke Rasmussen could be open to new government opportunities for his party, given his perceived strong management of the Greenland crisis. Both parties, Venstre and Moderaterne, belong to the Renew Group in the European Parliament.

The programme Frederiksen presented for a new government consists of more traditional Social Democratic policies, such as taxing the rich and reforming public schools. Already at the start of her campaign, she posted a picture on her social media showing her having a private dinner with the most influential trade union leaders. The trade unions requested that a new government initiate a pension reform in the interests of the traditional working class. Denmark has a special pension system dating back to 1957, which was initially universal, so that every citizen could benefit from a state pension regardless of whether they had contributed. It also includes the same pension age for all. Following the decision to raise the retirement age to the world’s highest, the Danish trade unions objected. Yet, a pension system reform was not a central topic in election debates.

During the campaign, Frederiksen maintained a tough stance on migration, as did most parties. Most Danish parties are in favour of deporting criminal migrants with a sentence of more than one year, even if it conflicts with decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. Besides migration, Frederiksen was adamant about focusing her election campaign on traditional welfare policy, including public schools, taxation, and how to prevent social inequality.

New topics quickly arose during the campaign. People all over the country demanded clean drinking water. In Denmark, tap water is considered an important public good for all. Lately, water pollution caused by farms has been found, especially in the North of Denmark. Frederiksen’s government was attacked for not taking pollution problems seriously enough and for instead protecting farmers. She promised to impose a nationwide ban on farmers’ use of certain pesticides without negotiation. She said, “clean tap water is a fundamental part of the Danish identity”. Also, huge industrial pig farms with terrible conditions for animals became a serious topic in the election, and almost all parties promised to do something about it.

Crucially, young people proved less interested in the traditional Social Democratic politics offered by Frederiksen’s programme. Their concerns are primarily the green transition, clean water, and, not least, animal welfare. As a Danish commentator said, “pigs are the moral winners of this election”. Despite being represented by young politicians (Denmark had the youngest government in the world in 2011 and also in 2019), many young people did not vote for the Danish Social Democrats. The traditional left-right opposition is outdated for young people. Today, many young Danish men vote for the extreme right-wing liberal party. They sympathise with the party’s more individualistic focus on economic development. In contrast, young Danish women tend to vote for the Green Left party, which promises action against climate change and supports the green transition and animal welfare. The super liberal party, the Liberal Alliance, also called the ‘Tiktok party’ due to its strong social media performance, is attractive for young voters too. In Denmark, parties have no gender quotas for their voting lists. The Green Left has more elected female representatives, and the extreme liberals have more male ones. Social Democrats won 38 seats, 15 of which are occupied by women. 

Clearly, international affairs were not a core topic of the Danish election. Most parties continue to support Ukraine. Frederiksen announced that the current US-Israeli war against Iran would be a crucial topic for the new government. But people expressed greater concern about security and fuel prices. In fact, while Frederiksen had hoped for good election results following her strong position and leadership during the Greenland crisis, voters were much more focused on national affairs. The Greenland crisis was hardly mentioned during the campaign. In contrast to the past, there is very little EU scepticism in Denmark today, and all parties except DF are strong supporters of European cooperation. When asked during the election campaign whether DF would withdraw from the EU, party leader Messerschmidt clearly denied. Today, campaigning against the EU would cost the party votes in Denmark.

Finally, the election results make it difficult to form a new government. This was exemplified by Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s statement towards the two former coalition partners, asking them to “climb down from the trees” on which they had been sitting during the campaign, attacking one another. Forming a new government will most likely be a long process.

Photo credits: Shutterstock / Stig Alenas