Social Democrats Win National Elections in Denmark

The center-left Social Democrats in the Nordic country of Denmark won a majority of seats in their national elections on Wednesday, June 5 defeating the center-right Venstre party as well as other conservative political parties. Official results have indicated that the Social Democrats and their coalition partners composed of left-wing to far-left parties won more than 90 seats out of the 179-seat parliament.

Venstre party leader and Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen’s conservative center-right coalition won 80 seats. The right-wing to far-right Danish People’s Party came in 2nd place with 34 seats. The Danish island territories of Greenland and the Faroes have elected two center-left representatives.

The center-left coalition is expected to form a majority government with smaller parties across the ideological spectrum in order to avoid a conservative government or any coalition with the far-right populists. Mette Frederiksen, who is the leader of the Social Democrats, will become the country’s youngest prime minister at the age of 41 years old and the second woman to become the head of government after her party’s previous leader, Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Issues that were critical during the campaign included human-made climate change as well as the environment, maintaining the generous welfarist policies, and immigration reform in the wake of the migrant crisis.