Danish Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democrats, Mette Frederiksen, on March 25, 2026, during the election ceremony in Copenhagen.Image: keystone
March 25, 2026, 3:25 p.mMarch 25, 2026, 3:25 p.m
The wild election parties after the parliamentary elections in Denmark were followed by a hangover mood. Because no political camp was able to win a clear majority.
And the Danes are facing a complicated government formation process. 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 never popular, “to say the least,” admitted Frederiksen. To this day, many Danes have not forgiven her for abolishing a public holiday in order to finance military build-up. Voters also punished their right-wing liberal coalition partner: Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen’s party achieved the worst result in its history with 10.1 percent. The Prime Minister submitted her government’s resignation to King Frederik X on Wednesday morning.
Denmark’s King Frederik X on March 15, 2026.Image: keystone
Frederiksen still wants to continue governing. The only question is how. Even an alliance of Social Democrats and left-green parties cannot achieve a majority of 90 of the 179 seats in parliament. The Prime Minister doesn’t necessarily need that either: minority governments are normal in Denmark. What is crucial is that she does not have a majority against her. And when it comes to security policy and Greenland, everyone largely agrees anyway.
But Frederiksen made it clear: Denmark needs a stable government again in these uncertain times. “Our world is changing at a pace and with a power that we have never seen in our lifetime,” she told the broadcaster DR. That is why the social democrat wants to form a broad coalition again – preferably with the left-wing parties and her previous second government partner, the center party Moderaterne of Lars Løkke Rasmussen. The bourgeois-conservative parties are also vying for their mandates.
“Our world is changing at a pace and with a force that we have not seen in our lifetime.”
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen
In total, the “blue bloc” from these parties got 77 seats in parliament – compared to 84 seats from the “red bloc” from left-wing parties. In between there is the Moderaterne with 14 seats in the middle. It could now help one of the two blocs reach the magic number of 90 mandates.
Everyone is flirting with Lars Løkke Rasmussen
Already after the 2022 election, the former head of government Rasmussen and his party played a joker role – and ended up as foreign minister in Frederiksen’s government. After leaving the right-wing liberals, the cunning strategist reinvented himself with the Moderaterne party. “There is only one real winner in this election: the moderates,” said political scientist Rune Stubager from Aarhus University. “They are in the position in which they feel comfortable: that of the kingmaker.”
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.Image: keystone
The first television round of the twelve party leaders after the election on Wednesday is like a bazaar. How is a sensible government supposed to emerge from countless possible constellations? The perplexity of this is written all over the politicians’ faces. The sparks are flying openly between red and blue, between social democrats and right-wing populists. In the end, everyone seems to have lost track of who could or could not be with whom.
“Come and play with us!”
Only one person is likely to enjoy the situation: the man who seems to have all the cards in his hand, Lars Løkke Rasmussen. “Come and play with us!” he called out to both camps on election night. If there are any explorations between moderates and leftists, things are likely to get heated. The head of the left-wing unity list, Pelle Dragsted, immediately made it clear that tax relief for companies would not be possible with his party.
“Come and play with us!”
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen
And there are also points of friction between the Social Democrats and their left-green potential partners. While everyone wants to work for clean drinking water and better animal protection, migration policy is likely to be a problem. Under Mette Frederiksen, the tough stance against asylum seekers had become a trademark of the Social Democrats.
The Left is strong – comeback for anti-migration party
The left-wing parties celebrated gains in the election. The Socialist People’s Party even became the second strongest party in parliament with 11.6 percent.
But a right-wing populist party also celebrated a comeback: after a catastrophic result four years ago, the Danish People’s Party got 9.1 percent (2022: 2.6 percent). “A large part of their success is due to the fact that another anti-migration party has completely collapsed,” said political scientist Stubager. “Overall, support for parties critical of migration in parliament has remained roughly the same.”
“Overall, support for parties critical of migration in parliament has remained roughly the same.”
Political scientist Rune Stubager
Majorities must now be found in the Danish party confusion between the far left and the far right. That should take some time. And in the end, Mette Frederiksen hopes that the head of government will be called Mette Frederiksen again. Otherwise, she says, she won’t take part anymore: it doesn’t suit her temperament. (sda/dpa)