Legislative in Denmark: narrow victory for the left bloc

The left-wing coalition of the outgoing Prime Minister won a one-seat majority against the right-wing and far-right alliance.

Source AFP

Elections were called after the ‘mink crisis’
© MIKKEL BERG PEDERSEN / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP

Published on 01/11/2022 at 9:33 p.m.
– Modified 02/11/2022 at 01:44

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LThe left-wing bloc of Social Democrat Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wins the legislative elections by a breath, obtaining a majority of only one seat at the end of the legislative elections on Tuesday in Denmark.

At the end of a long electoral evening, the left bloc won 87 seats, according to the complete results in mainland France, to which must be added three seats from Greenland and the Faroe Islands forming a majority of 90 seats. In power for four years, the Social Democrats have won 50 of the 179 mandates in the Folketing, increasing their 2019 score by 1.6 points with 27.5% of the vote.

“Thank you,” wrote Mette Frederiksen, posting a photo of herself smiling on Instagram, her favorite medium. “I am very, very happy,” she told reporters as she arrived in parliament with her husband after a long election night.

The bloc bringing together the right and the extreme right has 72 seats, plus a seat in the Faroe Islands. “The election results show that there is once again a red majority in parliament,” noted Liberal Party leader Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, whose party fell ten points. With 16 seats, former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s centrist Moderates party, which hoped to play a decisive role as arbiter, entered parliament.

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An election linked to the “mink crisis”

The early poll was prompted by the ‘mink crisis’: a party supporting the minority government threatened to overthrow it if it did not call an election to ensure voters’ confidence after the decision, which was later declared illegal , to cull the country’s huge herd of mink to fight the coronavirus. The management of the pandemic was barely mentioned during the campaign, as were immigration issues, in a country that has championed rigorous immigration for more than twenty years.

Jealous of its prosperity and cohesion, Denmark is known for its hard line in this area, regardless of the bloc in power. Apostle of a “zero refugee” policy, the outgoing social-democratic government is thus pushing for the establishment in Rwanda of a delocalized management center for asylum seekers.

READ ALSOCan Denmark export its asylum seekers?

Since the late 1990s, the far right has had a significant influence on Danish politics. For this election, three populist parties competed for the votes of voters. The Danish People’s Party, the most established of them, is however losing ground compared to the other two and would gather 2.5 to 2.9%, according to the exit polls, its worst result. Voter turnout is traditionally high in Denmark. In 2019, 84.6% of the approximately 4.2 million voters traveled to vote.