1. Social Democrats still have the magic
Perhaps no one was more surprised by the Danish election results than incumbent Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who wiped away tears as she spoke with supporters at her party headquarters in Copenhagen late Tuesday evening.
During the campaign, there was no certainty that she would be in that position, and she had talked about wanting to form a broad government of national unity to address the issues the country is facing — the same issues that the rest of Europe is facing, such as the climate crisis, rising energy prices, the war in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis.
the end, it was the Social Democrats’ best election result in the last two decades, with 50 secured seats and enough support from other left-wing parties to form a government — so it remains to be seen whether they will now, in a winning position, still reach this breadth and form a government Which she spoke about during the election campaign.
2. The moderates rose but will not be kingmakers
For a party that was only founded in the summer, the moderates did exceptionally well to win 16 seats and become the third-largest party in parliament.
Under the leadership of former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the moderates had hoped to find themselves in the role of kingmaker after counting the votes (and Rasmussen undoubtedly had visions of becoming prime minister again), but that shouldn’t be the case, as the left bloc had enough seats had won a majority.
3. Far-right highs and lows
The Danish right-wing extremist has experienced ups and downs over the past two decades.
From 2001 to 2011 and again from 2016 to 2019, the Danish People’s Party (DPP) supported the governments of that time (including the government of Lars Løkke Rasmussen, see above) and therefore had a seat at the table when it came to making political decisions that met the wishes of its voters: Will be tough against migrants.
In the 2014 European Parliament elections, the DPP developed as the largest Danish party and secured 27% of the vote.
Fast forward to 2022, and there are mixed fates for Denmark’s far-right parties.
The Danish People’s Party has gone out of fashion and won only five seats (less than 16 in the last elections, where they have already lost 21 seats compared to previous elections).
However, the right mantle was taken up by the Danish Democrats, another party that was only officially created in June this year and was led by former minister Inger Støjberg and secured 14 seats.
Is Støjberg’s name even familiar? In December 2021, in her role as Minister of Immigration, she was convicted of illegally separating asylum-seeking couples where one partner was under 18 years of age.
After rare impeachment proceedings, Støjberg was sentenced to 60 days in prison. The court found that she had neglected her ministerial duties “intentionally or through gross negligence.”
It now leads the fifth-largest party in parliament. What a difference a year makes.
4. Losers can be winners
Even if it looks like a party did poorly on election night, they could turn out to be winners in the end.
The small Radical Venstre Party — in English it is called the Social Liberal Party — has only accepted seven members of parliament, which is significantly lower than the 16 seats they won in the last elections.
They are a pro-European party and have previously supported both left and right governments in Danish politics, so they could still end up as “winners” by making some concessions to Mette Frederiksen while trying to form a new government.
This means that party leader Sofie Carsten Nielsen could be able to soften the government’s position on immigration issues, where Radical Venstre is taking a less strict approach.
Every cloud has a silver lining on the horizon.
5. The smallest constituencies played an outsized role
It was not only the voters on the Danish mainland who voted in these general elections.
Voters in the Faroe Islands went to the polls on Monday, October 31, while the Greenlanders voted on November 1.
Each of the regions that have a semi-autonomous relationship with Denmark is sending two parliamentarians to the Folketing in Copenhagen.
Although the left-wing bloc led by Mette Frederiksen secured 87 seats thanks to mainland constituencies, this meant it was still three seats below the majority.
But as in the 1998 parliamentary elections, the votes in the North Atlantic were in favor of the Social Democrats: Greenland returned two left-wing members of the Siumut and Inuit Ataqatigiit parties with 47.8% voter turnout; while on the Faroe Islands a Social Democratic MP was elected, with Overall 71.3% voter turnout.