Greenland Wasn't the Biggest Issue in Denmark Election

Denmark's election on Tuesday ended in an indecisive result that left the prime minister's future unclear, after a campaign that focused on bread-and-butter issues rather than her handling of the crisis over President Trump's ambitions toward Greenland. Official results showed that Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's center-left Social Democrats lost ground compared with the last election in 2022, as did her two partners in the outgoing government, the AP reports.

• Neither the left-leaning "red bloc" nor the right-leaning "blue bloc" won a majority in parliament. That left experienced Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen—a former prime minister—in the role of kingmaker. His centrist Moderate party is in a position to determine whether Frederiksen can serve a third term at the helm of the European Union and NATO country. The Guardian predicts that another center-left government is likely to emerge after weeks of negotiations.

• Løkke Rasmussen reportedly spent much of the night smoking his pipe before delivering a speech, per the Guardian. He called on rivals on the left and right to climb down from some of the positions they staked out in the campaign, and "come and play with us." Denmark "is a small country of 6 million people in a world of 8 billion, which is in upheaval—and there is war in Iran, and there is war in Ukraine," he said. He argued that "We are one tribe. We must come together. We must not be divided."
• But Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, a center-right challenger to Frederiksen, made clear that he doesn't intend to go into government with her Social Democrats again. The Social Democrats remained the biggest single party, but with 21.9% of the vote—well below the 27.5% they took in the 2022 election.

• The 48-year-old Frederiksen is known for strong support of Ukraine in its defense against Russia's invasion and for a restrictive approach to migration—continuing what has become a tradition in Danish politics.
• Frederiksen called the election in February, several months before she had to. She apparently hoped that her resolute image in the standoff over Trump's push for control of Greenland, rallying European allies behind Denmark, would help her with voters. Her support had previously waned as the cost of living rose, something that, along with pensions and a potential wealth tax, has been a prominent campaign issue.
• Fredericksen met with Greenlandic people in Aalborg, Denmark's fourth-largest city, on Tuesday and praised them for gracefully standing firm against "completely unreasonable and unacceptable pressure" from the US. "For all of us who have been involved in this, whether as Greenlanders who have felt threatened or as Danes who have felt a strong sense of solidarity—or, in my own case, as the one who had to stand at the forefront—we will never forget the time we have been through together," she said.