Frederiksen's Social Democrats came out on top in the general election on Tuesday, but neither the left nor right bloc gained an overall majority. That means coalition talks lie ahead, and Frederiksen is not guaranteed to remain in post.
The ‘red’ bloc of left-leaning parties, including the Social Democrats, ended on 84 seats in the 179-seat parliament with the right on 78, with 90 seats needed for a majority.
That leaves the centrist Moderate party, headed by Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, in a crucial position as kingmaker, with 14 seats that will be coveted by both the right and left bloc.
Løkke has said he wants a government formed of centrist parties from both sides, but the path to achieving this looks tricky.
Frederiksen, whose party finished with the largest vote share albeit down 5.6 percent from its result in 2022, said she was prepared to carry on as head of government for another four-year term.
"I am ready to take on the responsibility of serving as Denmark's prime minister again for the next four years," she told cheering supporters in the early hours of Wednesday.
Thorny negotiations are expected in the coming weeks to build a coalition government.
“There is not much to suggest that it will be easy to form a government,” Frederiksen said. A total of 12 different parties have been elected to parliament, many having already stated who they will and will not work with to govern the country.
“A new Folketing [parliament, ed.] must cooperate with each other, we must bend towards each other and find compromises,” Frederiksen said.
Traditionally Denmark's biggest party, the Social Democrats were credited with just 21.8 percent of votes, their lowest score since 1903 and down from 27.5 percent in 2022.
"We were expecting to lose ground, that's normal when you run for a third time," Frederiksen acknowledged.
"Of course I wish we would have gotten more votes."
Throughout the election campaign, Frederiksen has avoided stating a definitive preference for a left-wing government or a left-right coalition similar to the one she has led since 2022.
But Tuesday’s result makes the former outcome impossible and the Moderates’ 14 seats decisive in how the next government will be formed.
However, any new centrist coalition will not be the same as the outgoing government which consisted of the Social Democrats, Moderates and Liberals. The three parties went from a combined 89 seats in the last election to 70 and are therefore far from any sort of majority.
Frederiksen said that being part of the government comes at a cost, citing the disappointing result for the Liberals, who went from 13.3 percent to 10.1 percent, as well as her own party.
“The [coalition] government was never popular, to put it mildly. But I think it served the country. It benefitted Denmark in a turbulent time, and many of the results we achieved together will stand for many years,” she said according to news wire Ritzau.
In his own speech to supporters on Tuesday night, Liberal leader Troels Lund Poulsen appeared to rule out forming a new government with the Social Democrats.
"Either we have a centre-right government, or we go into opposition," he said.
Frederiksen admitted to reporters after her speech that work to find a new government platform could be difficult.
“Yes, I would think [it will be],” she said.
“Politics is undergoing change, and Denmark is beginning to look like other countries with more parties and more splits,” she said.
“So we’ll now have to listen to what the so-called ‘red’ parties and Lars Løkke Rasmussen say,” she added.
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