Denmark faces weeks of coalition talks as Frederiksen emerges bruised in election
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats were headed for their worst election outcome in over a century on Tuesday, as migration and welfare concerns obscured broad support for her defiant stance towards Washington over Greenland.
In power since 2019, Frederiksen, 48, had campaigned on a promise that her tough and tested leadership skills would help the Nordic nation of 6 million navigate a complex relationship with US President Donald Trump and the European response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
But on Tuesday she emerged bruised both from the left and the right at home, where the cost-of-living crisis has come to the front of voter concerns, observers said.
Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, the architects of Denmark’s cradle-to-grave welfare state, were seen winning 38 seats in the legislature, the Folketing, compared with 50 four years earlier.
Her chances of staying in power for a third term were not gone although coalition talks could take weeks.