Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's party won the most seats in a closely-contested parliamentary election, setting the stage for difficult coalition talks to secure a third term in office.
The premier's Social Democrats emerged as the biggest with 21.9% of the Tuesday vote overshadowed by Donald Trump's threats over Greenland, after all ballots were preliminarily counted. It's the party's worst result in more than a century.
Leftist ally the Green Left followed with 11.6% backing, with right-leaning rival Liberals at 10.1%.
The outcome still leaves both traditional camps short of a clear majority, giving Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen of the centrist Moderates the role of kingmaker. Rasmussen urged coalition partners Frederiksen and Liberal leader Troels Lund Poulsen to abandon their drift toward the left and right and instead form a centrist government.
The Danish ballot has been clouded by Trump's designs for Greenland, thrusting foreign and security policy to the forefront of what is typically a domestically focused race. Turnout was 84%.
The 48-year-old Frederiksen had been polling poorly before the US president renewed his claims over Greenland in January, but saw a boost in backing following her handling of the dispute. That prompted her to call the vote early, with Danes galvanized by Trump's pressure to rally around their leader — mirroring the outcomes of Canadian and Australian votes last year.
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Frederiksen currently governs in a rare cross-bloc coalition and would likely seek to explore similar constellations to secure a third term if a majority with her traditional allies doesn't materialize. One of her options appeared to disappear, as Liberals' Poulsen ruled out continuing in a government with Frederiksen's Social Democrats.
Failure to win sufficient backing could open the way for alternative coalition talks that may ultimately lead to a different prime minister. One such option is Poulsen who said he'd be open to working with 61-year-old Rasmussen of the Moderates, often dubbed the comeback king of Danish politics.
Positioning itself in the political center, the Moderates have campaigned on pragmatic cooperation across Denmark's traditional left-right divide. Four representatives from Greenland and Faroe Islands may also tilt the balance of some potential coalition formations.
Frederiksen rose to power in 2019 in Denmark by steering her party toward a tougher stance on immigration, reclaiming working-class voters who had drifted to the right. At 41, she became the country's youngest-ever prime minister.
The premier has emerged as one of Europe's most influential leaders, bolstered by a hard line on immigration, strong backing for Ukraine and standing up to Trump.
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Still, Frederiksen's party slid almost 6 percentage points from the 2022 ballot. The poor backing reflects local municipal elections in November, when the Social Democrats lost the mayor position in capital Copenhagen for the first time since 1903.
“It takes a toll to hold power — it takes a toll to be in power in a government like the one we've had,” Jeppe Bruus, minister for green transition for Social Democrats, said in an interview at an election party before the results were known. “We would have liked a better election result.”
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