Mette Frederiksen (left) wants to govern again despite losses.Image: keystone
In Copenhagen, several parties celebrate their successes with wild parties on the night after the parliamentary elections. But a hangover mood will soon set in.
03/25/2026, 04:2803/25/2026, 04:28
Because no political camp could win over a clear majority. And forming a government is likely to cause a lot of headaches for the Danes.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats once again became the strongest party with 21.9 percent of the vote, but lost twelve seats and performed as poorly as they did more than a century ago. Your current three-party coalition of the political center is far from a majority in parliament.
The government was “to say the least” never popular and was unable to change that, admits Frederiksen. But it is also not enough for an alliance of Social Democrats and several left-green parties – the required majority of 90 of the 179 seats in parliament is out of reach.
Nevertheless, Frederiksen threw her hat into the ring for a third term that night. “We had government responsibility under very difficult conditions,” she said, alluding to the uncertain world situation with numerous sources of crisis and conflict. Under these conditions, the election result for the Social Democrats was “okay”. Denmark now needs a stable government.
Voters punish centrist government
Frederiksen had already issued this motto in 2022 and therefore set up a broad government across political camp boundaries – with the right-wing liberal Venstre and Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s Moderaterne party, which is in the political center.
But the voters did not appreciate the construct, which was unusual for Denmark. Rather, they punished both the Social Democrats and the right-wing liberals of Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen. The latter remained the strongest right-of-center party, but achieved the worst result in its history with 10.1 percent.
In total, the “blue bloc” of bourgeois-conservative parties got 77 seats in parliament – compared to 84 seats for the “red bloc” of left-wing parties. In between, Rasmussen’s party is in the middle with 14 seats. You could now help one of the two blocs reach the crucial number of 90 mandates.
When two people argue: “Løkke” as kingmaker?
Rasmussen already had such a joker role after the 2022 election – and ended up as foreign minister in Frederiksen’s government. In Denmark they say that the former head of government has had nine political lives. With the Moderaterne party, the politician, best known in Denmark by his middle name “Løkke”, reinvented himself after leaving the right-wing liberals.
The party leader arrives at his party’s election party that night with a pipe in the corner of his mouth. As he pushes his way through a huge crowd of cameras and reporters, journalists shout to him:
“Are you red or blue?”
Rasmussen initially lacks an answer. He doesn’t have to decide yet. But he wants to play a role. In his speech on election night, he said to his previous coalition partners: “You stand in your corners. We are in the middle. Come and play with us!”
Frederiksen, however, did not want to decide on election night who she would speak to first if she received the mandate from Denmark’s King Frederik X to negotiate the future of the government. Things are likely to get hot in the coming weeks. While the Social Democrats, like the left-green parties, want to campaign for clean drinking water and better animal protection, other issues are likely to be a problem. One point of contention: the tough migration policy, which has become a trademark of the Social Democrats under Mette Frederiksen.
Climate protection and small classes: Left parties on the rise
The left-wing parties will not make it easy for Frederiksen, as they were able to celebrate gains in the election. The Socialist People’s Party, which campaigned for smaller school classes and more climate protection in the election campaign, even became the second strongest party in parliament with 11.6 percent. “The Danes have spoken – and they want more red and green politics in this country,” said the head of the left-wing Enhedslisten party, Pelle Dragsted.
But supporters of tough action against foreigners were also able to convince more voters: after a catastrophic result four years ago, the right-wing populist Danish People’s Party got 9.1 percent this time (2022: 2.6 percent). Right-wing populist parties also made slight gains overall.
In Denmark, many decisions are made with a broad majority across political camps. Minority governments are normal – what is crucial for a future government is that it does not have a majority against it. Nevertheless: “There is not much to suggest that this will be easy,” says Mette Frederiksen. And then, in true Danish style, calls for compromises. (sda/dpa)