Danish election produces inconclusive result that leaves prime minister’s future unclear

Denmark’s election ended in an inconclusive result that left the prime minister’s future unclear, after a campaign that focused on bread-and-butter issues rather than her handling of the crisis over U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambitions toward Greenland.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark’s election Tuesday ended in an inconclusive result that left the prime minister’s future unclear, after a campaign that focused on bread-and-butter issues rather than her handling of the crisis over U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambitions toward Greenland.

Official results showed that Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s center-left Social Democrats lost ground compared with the last election in 2022, as did her two partners in the departing government.

Neither left-leaning nor right-leaning blocs won a majority in parliament. That left experienced Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, a former prime minister, in the role of kingmaker.

His centrist Moderate party, with 14 lawmakers in the 179-seat parliament, is in a position to determine whether Frederiksen can serve a third term at the helm of the European Union and NATO country.

Frederiksen said that she is ready to stay on as prime minister. “The world is unsettled. There are strong winds around us,” she said. “Denmark needs a stable government, a competent government. We are ready to take the lead.”