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By EurActiv
By Magnus Lund Nielsen
(EurActiv) — Denmark’s snap election has unsettled the right, exposing organisational strains and leadership tensions as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeks a renewed mandate.
The centre-right Liberal Party, long one of the country’s two dominant forces, faces a complicated route back to power. The early vote has created an unusual scenario: the two main contenders for the top job currently govern together in a centrist coalition – a rarity in Danish politics.
Power has traditionally alternated between the Social Democrats and the Liberals, and it has been more than three decades since a prime minister emerged from outside those parties.
Late on Thursday, Liberal leader and Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said he will attempt to form a government around himself.
“The timing surprised us,” Liberal MP Kim Valentin told Euractiv as he put up campaign posters in Copenhagen hours after Frederiksen’s announcement.
He insisted the Liberals remained “a party of prime ministers,” but conceded the party would need to shift significant numbers of votes to reclaim the top job.
Further to the right, the election comes as polling momentum fades.
Tobias Weische, a Danish People’s Party candidate who recently left his role as a policy adviser to Patriots chief whip Anders Vistisen in the European Parliament to prepare for an early contest, said the vote had come “earlier than hoped.” He acknowledged his bloc performs better when domestic cost-of-living issues dominate the agenda.
Polling had been improving before geopolitical tensions reshaped the debate. “I hope for it, but I don’t think it’s likely,” Weische said of securing a right-wing majority.
With 90 seats required for a majority in the 179-seat Folketing, right-wing parties must overcome internal rivalries while quickly mounting a national campaign.
Trump factor and strategic timing
The timing appears deliberate. Marlene Wind, a political scientist, said the government had been looking for a favourable window ahead of the October deadline, noting the right-wing bloc is fragmented and lacks a clear leader.
The vote follows heightened tensions with US President Donald Trump over Greenland, where American rhetoric briefly altered Denmark’s political landscape. Frederiksen saw a modest rise in support after positioning herself as a firm defender of Danish sovereignty.
“The campaign will quickly become about who voters trust to steer Denmark through the next geopolitical crisis,” Wind said.
Although Trump later softened his tone, the episode reinforced Frederiksen’s reputation as an experienced crisis manager.
Both Frederiksen and Poulsen have left open the possibility of continuing their centrist coalition after the election, even as they campaign against each other.
Wind said the key question on election night may not be a conventional left-right swing, but whether Frederiksen opts to sustain cross-party co-operation or pivot towards a red-green majority.
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