Elections to get out of the vice. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called early legislative elections for November 1 on Wednesday, October 5. In place since 2019, she gave in to the ultimatum of the Radical Left, an allied party, which threatened to bring down the government via a motion of censure, Thursday, October 6, if elections were not called. With a duel in sight between the outgoing left and a block bringing together the right and the extreme right.
The latest polls are very tight: they credit the “red block”, several left-wing parties led by the Social Democrats, from 47 to 50%. Against 49 to 50% for the “blue block”, including in particular the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party and three right-wing nationalist parties. In seats, neither of the two blocs would have a majority without the support of the overseas deputies (Greenland and Faroe Islands) of the Folketing, the Danish Parliament, according to these polls.
The mink case
Symbol of social democracy, acquired at the rigor of migration in the name of the defense of the welfare state, Mette Frederiksen, 44, remains however the favorite of voters for the post of Prime Minister. “I informed the Queen today that elections to Parliament were to be held” on November 1, said the Social Democratic leader in a short speech to the press.
According to a recent poll, 49.4% of voters want her for a second term, against 27.4% for the conservative Soren Pape Poulsen and 23.3% for the liberal Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, both declared candidates for his succession. A great follower of social networks, Mette Frederiksen is currently grappling, like other European leaders, with the high inflation that crosses the continent.
Her overall management of the country during the pandemic has been praised, but the Prime Minister has been dragging the pan of the “mink affair” for more than a year. In the land of “Borgen” – nickname of Christiansborg, the seat of the Danish legislative and executive power – the subject has turned into a political soap opera.
Faced with the worrying appearance of a variant of the coronavirus in fur animals, of which Denmark was until then the world’s leading exporter, Ms.me Frederiksen had ordered their complete slaughter, that is to say more than fifteen million heads. It then turned out that the government had no legal basis to impose this on herders, and the affair weakened it politically.
“Danish voters are more volatile than ever”
It was following a reprimand from a commission of inquiry for the management of this file that his allies began to demand the calling of elections. “This is the first time that a legal scandal has led more or less directly to an election, even if the ‘fall of the government’ occurs in slow motion”, notes the constitutionalist Frederik Waage. In mid-September, the six right-wing and far-right opposition parties had also called for early elections.
The Danish political landscape is more fragmented than ever, with no less than thirteen parties likely to win seats, according to the polls. “Danish voters are more volatile than ever. 45% have changed parties since the last time”underlines the political scientist Kasper Hansen, of the University of Copenhagen.
The far right has long been dominated by the Danish People’s Party (DF), which has backed several right-wing governments in the past. It is now divided, with two other competing nationalist formations, the New Conservatives and the Democrats of Denmark. The latter, whose name mimics that of Sweden’s far-right Democrats of Sweden, is a new party founded by former immigration minister Inger Stojberg. After serving two months of electronic bracelet in 2021 because of an illegal decision made when she was in government, she is back on the front stage.