Danes Vote As PM Mette Frederiksen Seeks Third Term After Greenland Boost
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Adrienne Murray, In Copenhagenand
Paul Kirby, Europe digital editor
Danes are enacting an election with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's Social Democrats going for a third term.
Frederiksen, 48, called the vote months earlier than expected, buoyed by popular assistance for her handling of US President Donald Trump's threat to annex Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory.
Her Social Democrats have actually lost assistance given that the 2022 elections and she is facing a strong challenge from two parties on the centre-right, including the Liberal Venstre party of Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.
Denmark is run by coalition federal governments and Tuesday's vote will choose whether power will stick with a left-win bloc or relocate to the right.
Latest viewpoint polls give Frederiksen's Social Democrats by the far the biggest share of the vote, on more than 20%, well ahead of the Liberals and Green Left.
Although the election is not being battled on the Greenland crisis, Frederiksen is gambling that the "Trump bump" that boosted her poll numbers after her bold position on Greenland will be adequate to hand her a third term in a tight election race.
Denmark, which has long been one of the closest US allies in Nato, has rebuffed Trump's quotes to take over Greenland, and the Danes and their European partners sent out a military contingent to the island last January.
Broadly-speaking, nevertheless, there is a wide agreement in Denmark on diplomacy, so it is domestic issues that have controlled the project path.
Instead, the state of the economy and the cost of living are key concerns, with Frederiksen proposing a 0.5% wealth tax for the richest 20,000 Danes. The high level of pesticides in drinking water because of pig farming and farming has likewise become a concern for voters, with some parties consisting of Frederiksen's calling for a ban.
However, her party's lead in the surveys is not most likely to be to keep the 90 seats she requires to hold a bulk in parliament.
After a commanding win in 2022, Frederiksen led a union across the middle, that saw her Social Democrats group up with the centrist Moderates and right-of-centre Liberals, and all three celebrations are down substantially in the surveys.
Troels Lund Poulsen of the Liberals has become another candidate for prime minister, however he requires a strong showing in Tuesday's vote.
Even with the biggest vote share, the Social Democrats are heading for their weakest result in more than a century. In last year's regional elections, they plunged to 17%.
The surveys suggest neither the "red" left-wing bloc nor the "blue" bloc on the right will be able to form a majority without depending on the centrist Moderates of Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen to function as kingmaker.
The 4 parliamentary seats held by Greenland and the Faroe Islands, might also show influential, with the possibility for the very first time in years that a minimum of one of the Greenlandic seats flips from red to blue.
Rasmussen, who also impressed Danes with his handling of the Greenland stand-off, has currently voiced his aspiration to handle the task of royal private investigator - a key role in creating a governing union.
However, the royal investigator usually ends up being the next prime minister, and Rasmussen has shown he has no desire to lead the nation once again, having served 2 terms as prime minister in the past.
He told reporters that he desired to be at the leading edge of shaping the next federal government's policy, with Denmark requiring to "stand together at a time of department".