The center-left party bloc of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has narrowly won the parliamentary elections. Her coalition won 90 of the 179 seats, giving her a wafer-thin majority. The centre-right opposition group was left with 72 seats.
For a long time it was unclear in opinion polls which of the two coalitions would come out best. In addition, a new party founded by former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the Moderates, was expected to act as a bridge. His party eventually won 16 seats.
An unexpected result was also that Frederiksen's own party, the Social Democrats, achieved its best result in two decades, making it the largest parliamentary party in Denmark.
“Social democracy has had its best elections in more than 20 years,” Frederiksen said in a speech last night in Copenhagen. She reiterated a previous campaign promise that she would try to form a centrist government, rather than a predominantly center-left one.
Former Immigration Minister Inger Støjberg, who was ousted after illegally ordering the separation of asylum-seeking parents and children, won 14 seats with his new anti-migrant party, becoming the fifth largest party in the Folketing.
The fact that almost all Danish parties on immigration have shifted sharply to the right in recent years has also led to the fact that the right-wing populist Danish People's Party has all but disappeared. That party was the second largest in Denmark in 2015, but only achieved 2.6% in these elections.