Denmark agrees to centrally-led minority government after 42 days of talks

Denmark’s acting Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Tuesday that an agreement had been reached to form a new centrally-led minority government after 42 days of talks following the Nov. 1 general election.

Ms Frederiksen said the governing coalition would include her own Social Democrats, the Liberal Party and former Danish prime minister Rasmussen’s new moderate party.

It will be shown later this week. The three parties control 89 seats in parliament.

Ms Fredrickson said after she was formally notified: “Just because different political parties come together in government doesn’t mean we agree on everything, but we’ve chosen to be in one working community with each other now because it’s important to us. The country is the most important thing,” the agreement was signed by the country’s titular monarch, Queen Margaret.

“Denmark is better off through cooperation and compromise than ultimately demanded,” Lokke Rasmussen wrote on Facebook.

Social Democrats leader Pia Olsen Dale, a traditional ally of the Social Democrats, slammed the new coalition on Twitter, saying “Denmark does not need a centrist government”.

Instead, she advocates for a government that addresses climate and environmental issues and cares for low-income people. “Unfortunately, that’s not what we’re going to get.”

Ms Frederickson’s party won 28 per cent of the vote, or 50 seats, while the Liberals won 13.3 per cent and 23 seats. Lokke Rasmussen and his moderates got 9 percent, or 16 seats.

Denmark was last governed by a centrist coalition in 1978, when the Social Democrats allied with the Liberals. This went on for eight months.

Ms Frederickson was forced to call the vote earlier this year after her government sparked controversy over its decision to cull millions of mink as a response to the pandemic.

Ms Frederiksen has been horrifying images of the slaughter and mass burial of mink since 2020 and eventually led to a rift in the centre-left bloc.