Denmark votes in close election, outgoing PM tipped to win

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Danes began voting on Tuesday in general elections, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seen as the favourite after standing up to US President Donald Trump over Greenland.

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The latest polls give the left-wing bloc, for which Frederiksen is the self-proclaimed candidate, a nine-seat lead over the right-wing bloc, but neither side is projected to win a majority of the 179 seats in Denmark’s parliament, the Folketing.

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Frederiksen, a Social Democrat who has been in office since 2019, has been praised for her leadership after fending off Trump’s repeated demands to annex Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory he claims the United States needs for national security reasons.

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At Copenhagen’s City Hall, voters, many on their way to work, lined up under a cloudy sky to cast their ballots as polls opened at 8:00 am (0700 GMT).

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“The alternatives (to Mette Frederiksen) are worse,” 24-year-old student Freja Strandlod told AFP just after casting her vote in central Copenhagen.

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“People may not really like her, but they see her as the right leader,” Elisabet Svane, political analyst at Danish newspaper Politiken, told AFP.

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Frederiksen, who had “a prime minister you can count on” as one of her campaign slogans, is a unifying figure in a world full of insecurity, and Danes are quite anxious — there’s Greenland, Ukraine, (and mystery) drones” that flew over the Scandinavian country last year, the Svane said.

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In addition, “it’s hard to imagine a right-wing government because it would have to unite such a broad swath, from the far right to the more centrist parties, which are not on very good terms with the far right,” said Ole Waever, a political science professor at the University of Copenhagen.

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The four overseas seats held by Denmark’s two autonomous territories — two for Greenland and two for the Faroe Islands — could tip the balance if the election result is very close.

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The centrist Moderate party, led by Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, a two-time former prime minister, could also prove decisive if things go down to the wire.

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– Interest in Greenland –

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In Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, the campaign has generated more interest than usual, with more than 20 candidates standing.

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“I think this election will kind of show us the direction going forward,” said Juno Berthelsen, a member of Greenland’s local parliament and leader of the Naleraq party, which wants to cut ties with Denmark as soon as possible.

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Several of the party’s members have met with the Trump administration.

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Greenland’s main political parties all want independence from Denmark, but Naleraq’s rivals favour a more measured process.

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Greenland’s Business Minister Naaja Nathanielsen, a candidate for the left-wing IA party, said fear of the United States had been central to the campaign in Greenland.

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“Due to the fact that the US has shown such aggression, you would find a bigger interest in really trying to push the Greenlandic narrative in the Danish parliament,” she said.

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– ‘No place here’ –

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In metropolitan Denmark, the row over the vast Arctic island has, however, not been central in the campaign.

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In the wealthy nation of six million people, the campaign has instead focused on domestic issues, including inflation, the welfare state and high nitrate levels in water from agriculture.

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“During the campaign, there weren’t really any key issues for me. I focused on climate policy and looked at the different parties to find the most pragmatic solution,” said William, a 26-year-old trainee lawyer who did not want to give his last name.

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In a country where the far right has heavily influenced policy since the late 1990s, immigration has also been a hot topic, with the Social Democrats advocating even tighter regulations.

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Frederiksen has also defended as “fair” a proposal to deny non-essential health care to people of foreign origin who threaten medical personnel.

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“It has to be this way: in addition to the formal punishment in the judicial system, we’re saying, ‘You have no place here’,” she said.

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Three populist parties are also in the running and opinion polls see them garnering around 19 percent of the vote.

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The most established of those is the far-right Danish People’s Party, which slumped in the 2022 election but has seen an upswing in opinion polls.

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In metropolitan Denmark, polling stations close at 8:00 pm, with exit polls expected to be published just after.

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AFP

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