Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is on track to win Denmark’s election, exit polls signaled Tuesday night.
Her Social Democrats are forecast to secure the most votes in the parliamentary election, despite getting just 19.2 percent of the vote, its lowest total in more than a century, according to the exit poll published by public broadcaster DR.
Final results are expected after midnight, which will set the stage for tough coalition talks that will likely last weeks, if not months.
After a historic defeat in last year’s local elections, Frederiksen was handed a political lifeline by U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to annex Greenland — triggering a rally-around-the-flag moment that the Danish leader capitalized on by calling an early election.
Frederiksen’s main right-wing challenger, the Venstre party led by Troels Lund Poulsen, tallied just 9.3 percent of the vote. Liberal Alliance’s Alex Vanopslagh emerged as the leading figure on the right with 10.5 percent, the poll projected. The Green Left in forecast to finish in second place, on 11.4 percent
Denmark is evenly split between a “red bloc” of left-leaning parties led by the Social Democrats, and the right-leaning “blue bloc,” led by Poulsen. Current Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s centrist Moderates party — which scored 8.2 percent, according to the exit poll — is likely to have the final say in coalition talks.
It is unlikely that the next government will be a repeat of the current coalition, a cross-party administration that broke with the traditional red-blue divide in Danish politics to include the center-left Social Democrats, center-right Venstre, and the centrist Moderates.
But Frederiksen’s apparent success could still unravel as both blocs were unable to find a majority, meaning Rasmussen emerges as the kingmaker in coalition talks. He has openly embraced that by putting himself forward the day before the election as “royal mediator,” appointed by King Frederik X, to broker talks.
Aside from Trump’s Greenland threats, the campaign centered on issues such as Frederiksen’s controversial proposed wealth tax, a pesticide ban in sensitive groundwater areas, increasing defense spending, lifting a ban on nuclear energy, animal welfare, and reinstating a religious holiday.
And the campaign wasn’t without controversy, either. Liberal Alliance leader Vanopslagh admitted to using cocaine during his time as party leader, which led some Danes to deem him unfit for the prime minister’s job.
This story is being updated.
Danish election: Exit poll says Frederiksen is on track to win after Trump clash
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