Today’s big topic: There is no clear majority after the election
What’s happening?
The election campaign is over, and the votes have been counted. But the result seems to raise more questions than it answers. 84 percent of eligible voters went to the polls on Tuesday and marked their ballots, and they have elected a Folketing with no clear majority.
Socialdemokratiet remains the largest party nationwide, with a comfortable margin down to number two, SF. The smallest party is Borgernes Parti, which cleared the threshold and won four seats. But biggest or not, Socialdemokratiet is headed for its worst election in more than 100 years. You have to go all the way back to 1903 to find a worse result for S. Back then, it won 20.47 percent of the vote. The governing partner Venstre was among the biggest losers. It also posted the worst result in the party’s history.
Why it matters!
After the 2022 election, Mette Frederiksen could freely choose between the red bloc and a centrist government. This time, it looks different. Without the North Atlantic seats, the red bloc has 84 seats, while the blue bloc has 77. That means neither bloc can secure a majority without the man in the middle: Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M). And that sets the stage for some creative lineups.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Mette Frederiksen will try to form a government
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen sees herself as the one to bring together a new government. And she intends to do that first and foremost by turning to the red parties and Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s Moderaterne.
»From what I’m hearing, a blue government can’t be formed with Lars Løkke as part of it. So it makes sense that we try to find a way forward. With some other parties«, Mette Frederiksen said.
Mette Frederiksen will, by her own account, approach the task with humility: finding a government in a Parliament of 12 parties, where none is truly large, though the Social Democrats are nonetheless the biggest.
– The Greenlandic votes have been counted
The parties IA and Naleraq will take Greenland’s two seats in the Danish Parliament, according to the final results from Greenland reported by KNR and Sermitsiaq. The two members of Parliament will be Qarsoq Høegh-Dam of Naleraq and Naaja H. Nathanielsen of IA.
Qarsoq Høegh-Dam, Sermitsiaq reports, emerged as the election’s biggest vote-getter. He received 4,615 personal votes, while Naaja H. Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business, minerals, energy, justice and gender equality, received 1,953.
– Here are today’s most important events:
- Mette Frederiksen remains acting prime minister and will therefore visit the King to brief him on the election results. It is still unclear when the meeting will take place.
- The King’s first round of consultations begins. The parties are received in order of size, and a representative from the Social Democrats will therefore be the first.
- The personal vote totals will also be published later today.
- At 11:00 a.m., there will be a debate at the Publicist Club with all party leaders taking part.
Talk of town: Now everyone wants the man in the middle
If you had to write a single headline capturing the voters’ verdict, it would be that one of the most seasoned politicians in Danish history has landed exactly where any power-minded politician dreams of ending up.
Right where influence is greatest. As the deciding vote in a new Parliament in which neither the red bloc nor the blue bloc has won enough support to command a majority of seats. It is, of course, Moderaterne (M), led by the party’s founder and chairman, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, we are talking about.
Measured in raw numbers, the red bloc can muster 84 seats, while the blue bloc has enough support for 77. That puts Moderaterne, with 14 seats, in an exceptionally advantageous position in the negotiations over forming a government, which the parties will soon begin.
»He’s someone who can pull himself up from nothing. He can also sink, of course, but the combination of his role as foreign minister and the Greenland crisis put the wind in his sails«, says Elisabet Svane, a political analyst at Politiken.
Read the full article here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.