Who’s in it?

The country’s most popular party might have only won one extra mandate, but thanks to the support of Radikale, SF and Enhedslisten, the left bloc has more than enough mandates to form the next government with Mette Frederiksen at the helm. At just forty one years old, she will become Denmark’s youngest-ever prime minister. After lean elections that scarcely merited their right to co-govern, the Conservatives are back with six extra mandates. Søren Pape Poulsen, leader and outgoing justice minister, lapped up the applause in front of a crowd who looked like they have really started to believe again.

Nobody gave the Christian Democrats a chance a few months ago, but the promotion of twenty-six-year-old Isabella Arendt to leader last month put fresh wind in their sails, and in the end the party came up only marginally short. Not only did they increase their 0.8 percent share of the votes in 2015 to 1.7 percent, but they were just 191 votes short of winning representation in west Jutland. With Arendt at the helm, it won’t be long until they return to Parliament for the first time since 2001.

What does it mean?

Dansk Folkeparti was expected to do badly, but not this badly. It lost twenty mandates and was left with just sixteen – of which only one is in Copenhagen. This means that either Martin Henriksen, the immigration spokesperson, or group chair Peter Skaarup will lose their seat. The emergence of Nye Borgerlige and Stram Kurs took the wind out of its hard right-wing credentials, but in truth the damage was done a long time ago when DF failed to make any real impact despite being the biggest blue bloc party in 2015, though Pia Kjærsgaard and leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl look set to retain their seats.

Heading into the election Stram Kurs, a new far right party, grabbed the headlines. It was seemingly on course to get more than 2 per cent of the public vote – the minimum required to get a mandate – but in the end it came up short, winning just 1.8 percent. Did far-right voters ultimately decide that the more experienced Nye Borgerlige was a better bet? For leader Rasmus Paludan, who only assembled his candidates in May, the election simply came too soon.

This article is a Fika Online exclusive.