The Social Democratic Party of Denmark has suffered a severe setback in the municipal elections held this Tuesday. The party he leads remained the most voted force in the entire Scandinavian country, with almost a quarter of the votes, but lost, for the first time in more than 100 years, the mayor of Copenhagen. The capital’s City Council will be led by the Green Left, which this Wednesday achieved the necessary support in a broad pact that excludes the social democrats.
The electoral blow for Frederiksen, and considered, comes less than a year before the legislative elections. The Danish media have described the result of the Social Democrats in the local elections as a “total humiliation”, a “catastrophe” and a “sinking”.
Although the SPD remains the leading force in the country, with 23.2% of the votes, the result represents a decline of almost five percentage points compared to 2021. However, it retains the mayorships of Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg, the most populated cities after Copenhagen. However, for the first time in almost two decades, it will not have representation in all the municipalities of the country, being left out of the municipalities of Fano and Laeso.
“This is, without a doubt, a protest vote and a personal defeat for Frederiksen,” political analyst Henrik Qvortrup told Reuters. “The days of the Social Democrats as the great unifying party that encompassed both urban and rural areas are coming to an end. I believe this marks the beginning of a deeper crisis,” Qvortrup said.
In the capital, the Social Democrats, led by Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil, received only 12.7% of the votes, very far from the Red-Green Alliance, which won the elections with 22.1% of the votes, and the Green Left (17.9%).
The exclusion of the Social Democrats in the brief negotiations this Wednesday for the formation of the new Government in the Danish capital was foreseeable. Rosenkrantz-Theil, a former Red-Green Alliance deputy, did not spare personal attacks during the election campaign and assured that she would not support a mayor from the other leftist forces.
Rosenkrantz-Theil, who has headed the ministries of Education and Housing and Social Affairs, was chosen a year ago by Frederiksen to replace the then mayor of Copenhagen, Sophie Haestorp Andersen, as a candidate in the municipal elections this Tuesday. “We were counting on going backwards, but it seems that the decline is greater than we had calculated and that is not satisfactory,” the prime minister admitted shortly after Rosenkrantz-Theil conceded defeat.
In the main Danish cities, the vote tilted to the left, driven, according to most analysts, by the increase in the cost of living, especially housing, and the perception of a deterioration in social services. Some analysts maintain that driven by Frederiksen they have also penalized the social democrats in Copenhagen.
In rural areas, however, the shift has been to the right. The Danish People’s Party and Denmark Democrats have benefited from the unrest generated by restrictions arising from new environmental regulations and the proliferation of wind and solar farms. “Many voters in rural areas simply do not buy the climate agenda,” summarizes Qvortrup.
Frederiksen, who, after the 2022 legislative elections, chose to form a government with the liberals and centrists of the Moderate Party, instead of with their traditional allies on the center-left, which had ruled Danish politics for more than four decades, ruled out that this decision was “a mistake” that had taken its toll on them. The leaders of the three parties in the Executive maintain that their intention is to maintain the ruling coalition after next year’s elections. However, the result of the municipal elections and recent polls may cause a change in strategy. “The idea of a centrist government is dead,” Bent Winther, political analyst for the liberal newspaper, stressed this Wednesday. Berlingske.
