Danes are voting in a general election called early by the country’s prime minister, in apparent hopes of exploiting public support for her firm stance on Greenland.
Mette Frederiksen, 48, is hoping to secure a third term in office for her centre-left Social Democrat party in Tuesday’s poll, which she called several months before she had to.
Her popularity, which has faded during her second term, has been boosted by her refusal to bow to US President Donald Trump’s pressure over the ownership of the kingdom’s semi-autonomous territory.
Hoping to unseat her are two opponents from the centre-right, one of whom, Liberal Party candidate Troels Lund Poulsen, is defence minister in Ms Frederiksen’s coalition government.
The other, Alex Vanopslagh, of the Liberal Alliance, recently admitted he took cocaine earlier in his time as party leader, which may have dented his chances.
The anti-immigration Danish People’s Party looks well-placed to bounce back from a very weak showing at the last election in 2022.
No single party is expected to win a majority under Denmark’s system of proportional representation, meaning another coalition from either the leftist “red bloc” or right-wing “blue bloc” is the likeliest outcome, possibly after lengthy negotiations.
Ms Frederiksen’s outgoing three-party administration was the first in decades to straddle the political divide.
Greenland, which took up much of the government’s energy in recent months, hasn’t been prominent in the campaign because there is broad agreement on its place in the kingdom.
Ms Frederiksen warned in January that an American takeover of the vast Arctic island, a proposal heavily criticised by Denmark’s European allies, would mean the end of NATO.
The crisis has since receded, as Washington joined talks with Denmark and Greenland over an Arctic security deal.
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More than 4.3 million people are eligible to vote for the new Folketing, or parliament, in Copenhagen, which is elected for a four-year term.
The single-chamber body has 179 seats, with two each representing Greenland and Denmark’s other semi-autonomous territory, the Faroe Islands.
