Mette Frederiksen gives a lesson on how to turn the fight against Trump into your own success
“Of course, I am disappointed that we lost support. However, I think it is an acceptable result,” Danish TV2 station quotes Frederiksen as saying from the post-election rally. Frederiksen stated in her speech that she intended to remain as prime minister, admitting, however, that forming a new government would not be easy. She told reporters afterward that she had already made contact with “several” party leaders.
The Frederiksen result in Denmark – where the Social Democrats lost support but still remained in power – it also reflects a broader trend across Europe, where the center-left is showing renewed energy. In recent elections, from Castile and León in Spain, through Marseille and Paris, to Slovenia and now Denmark, there are signs that opposing Trump-style policies or fighting Trump himself may be a winning strategy.
Frederiksen called a snap election earlier this year after enjoying a surge in polling following her clash with Trump as Copenhagen fended off the US president's attempt to seize the huge Arctic island.
However, the Frederiksen faction, winning 84 seats, overtook its rivals from the right-wing blue bloc, led by the Venstre and Liberal Alliance parties, which won a total of 77 seats. Venstre, with a result of 10.1 percent. votes, recorded the worst result in its history.
Difficult negotiations
Now stormy coalition talks will begin, and control over Copenhagen will probably depend on which direction Rasmussen leans — current Minister of Foreign Affairs and leader of the Moderate Party. His party has enough seats to hand power to Frederiksen or Troels Lund Poulsen of Venstre, who heads the blue bloc.
Rasmussen called on both Poulsen and Frederiksen to “stop trench warfare” after they spent much of the campaign attacking each other despite serving together in a coalition government. – Come down and join us. You stand in corners; we are inside. Come and play with us,” he said Tuesday night.
Poulsen, however, ruled out forming a government with Frederiksen again, turning instead to Rasmussen for help in forming a conservative government.
Moderate leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen (with a pipe) during the party's election rally in Copenhagen, Denmark, March 24, 2026.PAP/EPA/Rasmus Flindt Pedersen / PAP
After Denmark's last general elections in 2022, it took 42 days to form a government, even though the results were much more clear than those from Tuesday's vote.
Negotiations are complicated by the fact that the Red-Green Alliance – part of Frederiksen's red bloc – has stated that it will not join any government unless it is strictly left-wing, which could mean excluding Rasmussen and the Moderates. — If he wants to use our seats, he must propose a red government, party leader Pelle Dragsted said on Tuesday after winning 6.3 percent. votes.
Pia Olsen Dyhr, leader of the Green Left in the red bloc, who came second with 11.6 percent, said that all options – red, blue or broad government – remain in play, adding that coalition talks “will be difficult.”
The right-wing populist Danish People's Party said it wanted to make it as difficult as possible for Frederiksen and Rasmussen to form a government, and its leader Morten Messerschmidt called on the blue bloc to “unite.”
Frederiksen first came to power in 2019 when she led the Social Democrats back into government and unseated an administration led by the Venstre party, which was then headed by Rasmussen. After winning re-election in 2022, she formed a broad, bipartisan government with Venstre and Rasmussen's breakaway centrist party, the Moderates.
The Danish prime minister is known for her tough stance on immigration, while maintaining a more typically social democratic agenda on the economy and social welfare.
Frederiksen's term was also marked by controversy, mainly the 2020 mink slaughter scandal, in which her government faced heavy criticism for ordering the mass slaughter of mink without a proper legal basis because the animals were suspected of carrying the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic.
