Social Democrats win Danish election

Denmark’s Social Democrats won Wednesday's election, with 25.9% of votes, which would earn them 48 of the 179 seats in Danish Parliament.

This put them ahead of the Liberal Party of current Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, which got 23.4% of the votes and 43 seats, up almost four points since the 2015 election, but not enough to win.

The centre-left bloc won 91 of the 179 seats in Parliament, against 75 for the centre-right, so that Mette Frederiksen is set to be the country's youngest ever Prime Minister.

FREDERIKSEN: “YOU HAVE CHOSEN A NEW MAJORITY”

The centre-left party focused its campaign on climate and migration issues, and the defence of Denmark’s welfare state. Frederiksen mentioned some of those topics when claimed victory in a speech to supporters in Copenhagen.

“Thank you to the Danish voters, you have chosen a new majority, and a new direction. After tonight, we will put welfare first in Denmark again. Welfare, climate, education, children, future. Think of what we can do together. We now have the hope to change Denmark”, she said.

RASMUSSEN RESIGNS

Denmark's centre-right current Prime Minister Rasmussen resigned this Thursday, after failing to maintain a majority in Parliament.

“We had a really good election, but there will be a change of government”, Rasmussen told supporters late Wednesday.

He recognised that “we are left here tonight with progress for the party, the largest progress any Danish party have had tonight, but still with a bitter-sweet taste because the blue parties collectively are weaker”.

DANISH PEOPLE PARTY WORST RESULT IN 20 YEARS

Meanwhile, the Danish People's Party, which has supported successive minority rightwing governments in exchange for tighter immigration policies for the last two decades, saw its support more than halved to 8.7%, the party's worst score since 1998.

“This hurts, we must look at what we did wrong and what we can learn”, Danish People’s Party leader, Kristian Thulesen Dahl, said as the results came in.

The Social Democrats will now try to form a single-party minority government with the support of the Social Liberal Party, the Red-Green Alliance and the Socialist People’s Party.

Frederiksen’s victory is the third in nine months for centre-left parties in the Nordics, after wins in Sweden and Finland.