Social Democratic defeat a warning government can’t ignore
A headline defeat for Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democratic party in Copenhagen Municipality, where it is no longer in the mayor’s seat after an unbroken century of power in the city council, was symptomatic of a poor election for the party across the country.
The Social Democrats won just 12.7 percent of votes in Copenhagen, down three percentage points from the previous local elections in 2021 and far behind the Red-Green Alliance's (Enhedslisten) 22.1 percent and the Socialist People's Party's (SF) 17.9 percent.
The party meanwhile now controls just 26 of Denmark's 98 municipalities, down from 44 prior to the elections.
That makes them no longer Denmark’s largest party in terms of local representation, with the centre-right Liberal (Venstre) party having gained more mayor’s seats.
In terms of vote share, the Social Democrats remain the largest party but their 23.2 percent share of the vote is a decline of 5.2 percent since 2021.
Prime Minister and party leader Mette Frederiksen acknowledged her "responsibility" for the election fiasco.
“We expected to lose some support but it looks as if the loss is larger than expected, and that is obviously not good. There could be many explanations,” she said according to news wire Ritzau.
“It’s becoming increasingly hard to be the main Danish people’s party, which is inclusive to all Danes. We will closely consider in the coming days what might be behind this,” she told party supporters.
It’s less than a year until parliamentary elections are held in Denmark, and the collapse in support for the Social Democrats is likely to have them concerned about their prospects for staying in office beyond 2026.
It is also bad for the rest of the coalition
While there’s agreement in the Danish media that the election was worst for the Social Democrats, it’s also clear that it puts the coalition government as a whole under pressure.
Neither the Liberals (Venstre) – who actually gained a small number of council seats – nor the Moderates, the other partners in the coalition, can “magically transform the 2025 municipal elections into a winner,” newspaper Jyllands-Posten wrote.
Another newspaper, Berlingske, wrote that the local elections were an “awful test” for the Social Democrats “ahead of the parliamentary elections which must be held within a year.”
Referencing the coalition, the right-wing newspaper added that “the experiment of governing Denmark across the centre is in crisis, as demonstrated by the de facto wipeout of the Moderates” in the local elections.
A “landslide” away from the centre and towards the right and left wings is “concerning”, according to the Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper.
“It is now up to the traditional parties of responsibility to convince voters that there are not rational grounds to continue this trend into parliament,” it said.
Liberal Alliance showcase success for non-government parties
The libertarian party Liberal Alliance made a lot of ground on local council boards, going from 9 to 125 councillors nationwide.
The party’s parliamentary leader Alex Vanopslagh was left enthused over what he called the “best ever” local elections for the party.
“We are not just a strong party at Christiansborg [parliament, ed.] or in Brussels. We are also represented in council boardrooms and regional boards all over the country,” he said in a Facebook post.
The party now has two mayors, in Faxe and Solrød, showing its popularity in the Copenhagen commuter belt.
Women now outnumber men on Regional boards
Alongside the municipal elections were the elections for representatives to the five – which now becomes four under a reform – Regional councils, which oversee healthcare as well as regional development and planning.
READ ALSO: What’s the difference between a municipality and a region in Denmark?
A total of 134 regional representatives were elected in Tuesday’s vote, of which 68 are women.
That gives a percentage of 50.75 percent women on the elected councils nationwide, just up from the 50.24 percent women elected in 2021, when the overall numbers were higher because of the higher number of regions before the reform.
The 68 elected women include candidates elected for the first time and a number who were re-elected.
The proportions vary little across the four regions, with 15 women out of 31 elected in Central Jutland, 14 from 25 in North Jutland, 16 out of 31 in South Denmark and 23 out of 47 in the new East Denmark region, which merges the previous Greater Copenhagen and Zealand regions.
At the municipal level, there are now female mayors in 24 out of 98 municipalities, which is also a record.
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