Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has secured a third term in office after agreeing a centre-left minority coalition, ending more than two months of deadlock since the March 24 general election.
Frederiksen, leader of the Social Democrats, said she had told King Frederik X that a government could be formed. “I have been to see His Majesty the King and announced that a government can be formed after long negotiations,” she told reporters.
The coalition brings together the Social Democrats, the Green Left party (SF), the Social Liberal Party (Radikale Venstre) and the centrist Moderates. The four parties hold 82 seats in the Folketing (the Danish parliament), eight short of the 90 needed for an absolute majority.
That arithmetic means Frederiksen needs outside support to pass budgets and legislation, most likely from the left-wing Red-Green Alliance, which holds 11 seats. The pro-European party The Alternative, with five seats, has also been left outside the deal.
The line-up marks a shift for Frederiksen, who governed for more than three years alongside the right-wing liberal Venstre party. Venstre leader Troels Lund Poulsen had tried to assemble a rival administration before that effort collapsed, clearing the way for the Social Democrat leader.
A central figure in the talks has been foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, a former prime minister who leads the Moderates and their 14 seats. Løkke Rasmussen held discussions with both political blocs before backing a government tilted to the left.
The agreement follows a bruising election for the Social Democrats, who returned 38 seats, down from 50, in the party’s weakest showing since 1903. The left-wing bloc as a whole won 84 seats against 77 for the right.
Frederiksen said she would set out the coalition’s policy programme today, describing it as good for current Danes, future generations and animals alike, after a campaign dominated by the country’s polluting pork-farming industry.
The Red-Green Alliance said it would make a significant announcement today, though it gave no further detail.
King Frederik X is due to receive the new cabinet tomorrow morning. Frederiksen’s incoming administration faces strained relations with the United States over the future of Greenland, as the European Union and NATO member expands its defences in response to the war in Ukraine.
