In Tuesday’s municipal elections, the Danish Social Democrats (SD) lost the post of mayor of the capital Copenhagen, and the number of municipalities under their control was reduced by almost half. This was reported by the AFP agency, which added that the social democrats controlled Copenhagen for more than a century and occupied the post of mayor since its establishment in 1938.
- The Social Democrats lost control of Copenhagen after the election.
- SD candidate Rosenkrantzová-Theilová admitted failure and called for work.
- SD experienced significant losses at the national level in the elections.
- Sisse Marie Wellingová from SF will be elected mayor of Copenhagen.
- Cyber attacks marked the course of the election campaign in Denmark.
The SD candidate for mayor of Copenhagen, Pernille Rosenkrantzová-Theilová, also admitted her failure in the municipal elections, but she called on her fellow party members not to give up and to continue working, writes TASR.
According to the official results, compared to the municipal elections in 2021, the SD party lost three percentage points in the capital – it won 12.7 percent of the vote, which is far behind the far-left United candidate – Red-Green with 22.1 percent and the Socialist People’s Party (SF) with 17.9 percent.
They admitted the loss
After negotiations with six other parties, SF head Sisse Marie Wellingová will take over the post of mayor, added AFP. At the national level, the Social Democrats should win 26 mayoral and mayoral posts. Until now, they controlled 44 out of 98 municipalities in the country. SD leader and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen admitted her share of responsibility for the result achieved in the elections.
“We expected some loss, but it seems to be more than we anticipated, and that is obviously not satisfactory,” she said on Tuesday evening.
The AFP agency recalled that the social democrats in Denmark found themselves in such a situation for the second time since the parliamentary elections in 2022 and since the formation of a coalition between the social democrats, liberals and moderates. In the elections to the European Parliament in 2024, they finished in second place – behind SF.
Elections have known cyber attacks
Tuesday’s election was held after the final week of the election campaign was marred by cyber attacks targeting government, municipal and political party websites, claimed by the pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16).
The campaign was dominated by local issues such as schools, healthcare and care for the elderly, housing construction and measures related to climate change. Transport was also an important topic, especially in Copenhagen, where candidates clashed over the number of parking spaces in this metropolis, where there are more bicycles than cars.
About 10,000 candidates were interested in positions in city or regional municipalities, who applied for the votes of 4.7 million registered voters.
