She wasn’t up for election, but she played her part in the result: Mette Frederiksen.Image: keystone
An electoral defeat calls the Prime Minister’s migration policy into question.
November 20, 2025, 05:25November 20, 2025, 05:25
Niels Anner, Copenhagen / ch media
Your reputation in Europe is considerable. The social democrat with tightly tied hair and a clear political line is leading the way in supporting Ukraine, warning urgently about the Kremlin – and resolutely defending herself against Donald Trump’s Greenland ambitions.
At home, Mette Frederiksen has positioned herself as a strong country mother; Denmark is in an excellent economic position, and the 48-year-old is also finding some support abroad with her tough immigration policy. The British government has just announced a drastic tightening of asylum policy – based on the Danish model. Frederiksen is currently one of the few successful Social Democratic heads of government.
At least so far. On Wednesday, of all days her birthday, she experienced a fiasco. The results of the nationwide local elections brought their party massive losses of votes and defeats in the comrades’ strongholds – including Copenhagen, where they are no longer in government for the first time in over 100 years. “Bloodbath, catastrophe, total humiliation,” say political experts, although the Social Democrats remain the largest party nationwide with 23 percent.
But the loss of power in many communities shows how the party’s support is declining. The fact that national elections will take place in 2026 makes the situation even more uncomfortable for Frederiksen. That night she explained that the decline was greater than feared and “as party leader, I bear responsibility for it.”
Local issues do play a role in local elections: hospitals, schools and transport infrastructure. But the dissatisfaction with the Social Democrats, both in cities and in the countryside, is clear and, according to surveys, it has something to do with the government.
In 2022, Mette Frederiksen moved her party to the center and formed a controversial grand coalition with two bourgeois parties. In doing so, it has cemented its power with a solid majority and implemented reforms – but the population doesn’t appreciate this and the government is unpopular.
Focus on “non-Western” immigrants
At the same time, a central factor in Frederiksen’s success is becoming a problem: asylum and immigration policy. She has been tightening this for years, with the argument that society cannot tolerate too many immigrants – she is aiming for “zero asylum seekers”; and the welfare state can only be financed if migrants are fully integrated into working life.
This refers in particular to Muslims or “non-Western” foreigners, which Frederiksen likes to describe specifically as a problem: “Far too many non-Western immigrants and their descendants are racing on the streets, attacking young people at train stations, planning or calling for terror. Why can’t you behave?” she said at a party conference in September. Its ministers have argued that many foreigners are “infiltrating” Denmark and disrespecting Danish values.
Mette Frederiksen’s course recently doesn’t seem to be working.Image: keystone
With such rhetoric and policies, which focus more on restoration than integration, Frederiksen has brought back voters who had migrated to the right-wing populists. But they are fighting back and are now talking about remigration and the deportation of social welfare recipients without a Danish passport.
The elections now show that the head of government is in a tight spot: the Social Democrats are again losing voters to the right – and those on the left spectrum, for example in Copenhagen, no longer approve of her course and are joining the Socialists and Greens. If Frederiksen wants to continue to act as a hardliner, her middle-class partners, who fear for the economy, could also turn away. Political expert Bert Winther said your coalition government was facing “a death sentence”. (aargauerzeitung.ch)