Despite arriving earlier in the elections in Denmark, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen decided on Wednesday to step down alongside her Social Democratic government in an effort to build a broader coalition across the political divide.
Frederiksen’s announcement came after a dramatic vote count in which the center-left bloc that has supported her since 2019 kept a majority in Parliament for just one seat.
In theory, the 44-year-old Social Democratic leader could have remained in power as the head of a minority government. But he said he will stick to promises made before Tuesday’s elections to try to form a broader ruling coalition that includes center-right parties.
“I am happy, proud and grateful,” said Frederiksen. “These were very difficult years to be prime minister: first the pandemic, now inflation. Much indicated that a government in office would not get re-election.”
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Frederiksen resigned on Wednesday to Queen Margrethe, the monarch figurehead of Denmark. Frederiksen will remain prime minister as custodian until a new government is formed.
Frederiksen called an election last month amid the aftermath of his government’s controversial decision to eliminate millions of mink as a response to the pandemic. The culling and chilling images of mink mass graves haunt Frederiksen since 2020 and ultimately led to cracks in the center-left block.
Danish Prime Minister and head of the Social Democratic Party Mette Frederiksen speaks during the night of the country’s general election to the party in Copenhagen, Denmark on Tuesday, November 1, 2022.
(Nikolai Linares / Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
On Tuesday, the Social Democrats won 28% of the vote, or 50 seats in the Danish parliament of 179 members. Exit polls and early results suggested that the center-left parties together would not collect the 90 seats needed for a majority. They were in less than one seat until the end of the ballot count, when the decisive seat was overturned.
Before that, former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen looked set to become kingmaker. His newly formed party of moderates won 9% of the vote for 16 seats, according to the full vote count, which was preliminary. Final results were expected later.
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Løkke Rasmussen, a two-time government leader who lost the 2019 election to Frederiksen and quit the center-right liberal party following an internal struggle for power, said he would support Frederiksen’s attempt to form a government. , but not necessarily with you as prime minister.
“I know for a fact that Denmark needs a new government,” he told cheering supporters in Copenhagen. “Who will sit at the head of the table? We don’t know.”
Participants, including Danish Prime Minister and Social Democratic Party head Mette Frederiksen, third from left, participate in traditional post-election debates in Copenhagen, Denmark on Wednesday, November 2, 2022. Voters in Greenland secured the last two seats necessary for Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s center-left bloc to win the general election in Denmark.
(Photo AP / Sergei Grana)
Election results from Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory that has two seats in the legislature, confirmed early Wednesday that the center-left bloc would have a one-seat majority in parliament.
Some of Frederiksen’s former partners have expressed displeasure that he chose to seek a broader coalition rather than continue to govern with center-left support. Troels Bøggild, an associate professor of political science at Aarhus University in western Denmark, said Frederiksen now has two options for forming a new government.
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“Either you go with the moderates (in the center) and the liberals, and if that fails, you can go back to the red bloc and form a government there,” he said. “By resigning, he shows that his electoral promises to build a broad center government are serious.”
Frederiksen said a broad coalition would be in a better position to tackle major challenges such as inflation, climate change and shortages in the public health system.
Danish Prime Minister and head of the Social Democratic Party Mette Frederiksen speaks during the night of the country’s general election to the party in Copenhagen, Denmark on Tuesday, November 1, 2022.
(Martin Sylvest / Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Before the election, opposition leaders Jakob Ellemann-Jensen of the Liberals and Søren Pape Poulsen of the Conservatives rejected the idea of joining forces with Frederiksen, saying they aimed to form a center-right government. The center-right bloc got 73 seats, well below the majority, after a poor performance by the liberals.
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Frederiksen, who became Denmark’s youngest prime minister when she took office in 2019 at the age of 41, has partnered with the opposition to increase defense spending of NATO member Denmark in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Her firm leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic was partly overshadowed by the mink culling incident.
The decision to slaughter up to 17 million minks to protect humans from a coronavirus mutation was made quickly and without the required legislation. It dealt a devastating blow to Danish mink farmers, although there was no evidence that the mutated virus found among some minks was more dangerous than other strains.
