Danish PM's left-wing bloc wins vote but with no majority

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's hopes for a third term were further complicated on Tuesday, with her left-wing bloc winning the election yet failing to secure a majority.

The bloc, which includes the Social Democrats, the center-right Venstre and Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen's Moderates, took 84 seats in Denmark's 179-seat parliament.

The right secured 77 seats, official results showed.

Rasmussen's party became kingmaker with 14 seats, setting the stage for thorny negotiations as the winners strive to build a coalition government.

"We must not be divided. We must not be red (left-wing). We must not be blue (right-wing). We have to work together," Rasmussen told cheering supporters.

In the wake of having steered the country in the fight against President Donald Trump's threat to seize Greenland, Frederiksen called the vote months before an October deadline.

Her Social Democrat party had been bolstered with Frederiksen having rebuffed Trump's threat to take control of Greenland, an island in the Arctic Ocean that is a semi-autonomous territory controlled by Denmark.

But Tuesday's vote represents the worst result for the Social Democrats since ​the start of the last century, sinking to 21.9%. That's dramatic fall from the 27.5% they won in the last election in 2022.

"I am ready to take on the responsibility of serving as Denmark's prime minister again for the next four years," Frederiksen told cheering supporters after the vote.

Voting overtaken by domestic concerns

Tuesday's exit polls indicated that the political landscape in Denmark is more complicated than it may seem.

Voting concerns appear to have moved to the domestic tack, with concerns like a proposal for a wealth tax and debates about immigration having climbed back up to the top. 

Frederiksen had campaigned on a promise that her tough and tested leadership skills will help the nation of 6 million navigate a complex relationship with the United States and a European response to Russia's war with Ukraine.

A fragmented political landscape

Frederiksen has led Denmark since 2019, when she became the country's youngest-ever prime minister at 41 years old.

She was credited with having headed a coalition government that bridged the left-right divide for the first time in more than 40 years.

But the political landscape has since fragmented, with 12 parties contesting the ballot this election. 

"I think it's the most important election for the Danish parliament in Greenland in history," Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told AFP news agency. "We are in a time where we have a superpower trying to acquire us, take us, control us."

Speaking ahead of the vote, Nielsen said regardless of whoever got elected, "the most important thing that all the parties in Greenland have agreed on is that we need to work together."

With the left-wing bloc expected to hold firm and the right-wing bloc expected to fragment, Frederiksen remains the favorite to pull together a parliamentary majority to govern a coalition.

Edited by:  Rana Taha and Wesley Dockery