General elections were held in the Kingdom of Denmark on 1 November 2022, except in the Faroe Islands, where they were held on 31 October as 1 November was a national day of mourning for victims at sea.[2] Of the 179 members of the Folketing, 175 were elected in Denmark proper, two in the Faroes and two in Greenland. The elections were called on 5 October following an ultimatum to the government by the Social Liberals (which had been providing external support) due to the outcome of a report on the 2020 Danish mink cull by the Mink Commission, which was critical of the government.[3] Voter turnout was 84% in Denmark, 48% in Greenland, and 71% in the Faroes, with a combined turnout of 84% for the realm as a whole.
Initially looking like no bloc would gain a majority, left-leaning parties retained their majority due to results in the Faroe Islands and Greenland, but the majority was reduced to a single seat.[4][5] The governing Social Democrats achieved their best result in 20 years, with 28% of the vote, while the Social Liberals experienced one of their worst ever results. Leading opposition party Venstre also suffered major losses in the elections, losing more than 40% of its seats.[6] Two new parties standing in the elections, the Moderates and the Denmark Democrats, won 16 and 14 seats respectively, making them the third- and fifth-largest parties.[7]
The blue block and the Moderates together received more votes than the red block, but the red block won a majority of seats due to the two Greenlandic seats and the Social Democrats winning one more constituency seat than it was entitled to seats overall.[8] Following the elections, Frederiksen was appointed informateur and, despite the left bloc holding a majority of seats, opted to form a centrist government with Venstre and other parties from the blue bloc, which had also been her pledge during the campaign.[4][9] After negotiations, a coalition government composed of the Social Democrats, Venstre and the Moderates was formed, the first time since 1977 where both main parties were part of a coalition government.[10][11]
On 2 July 2022 Sofie Carsten Nielsen, leader of the Social Liberals, one of supporting parties of the government, encouraged Frederiksen to set an election date before 4 October after the report of the Mink Commission was published, criticising the government's handling of the Cluster 5 outbreak in November 2020.[13] Later the same day, Nielsen announced that she was ready to put forward a motion of no confidence if the prime minister refused to call early elections.[14]
On 5 October, Frederiksen announced that general elections were to be held on 1 November, the first to be held on a Tuesday since the 2007 Danish general election.[15]
Electoral system
The 179 members of the Folketing are elected in Denmark (175), the Faroe Islands (2) and Greenland (2). The 175 seats in Denmark include 135 seats elected in ten multi-member constituencies of Denmark by proportional representation, using the d'Hondt method (kredsmandater), and 40 leveling seats, allocated to parties in order to address any imbalance in the distribution of the constituency seats (tillægsmandater). The main threshold for levelling seats is 2%.[16]
According to the Constitution of Denmark, the election had to be held no later than 4 June 2023, as the last election was held on 5 June 2019. The incumbent prime minister is able to call the election at any date, provided that date is no later than four years from the previous election, and this is often cited as a tactical advantage to the sitting government, as it can call an early election when opinion polls are favourable. Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the previous prime minister from 2015 to 2019, announced on 7 May 2019 that elections would be held on 5 June; the latest date for that election was 17 June.[17]
In order for a new party to be eligible to run in the election it must obtain declarations of support (vælgererklæringer) from a number of electors at least equal to 1/175th of the total valid votes cast at the previous elections.[18] For the 2022 election, this figure was equal to 20,182 declarations of support.[19] Four new parties (Moderates, Denmark Democrats, Independent Greens and Vegan Party managed to raise this amount thus becoming eligible for the election although the Vegan Party choose not to use its eligibility but instead merge with the Alternatives.[20] A minimum of 1,112 votes were not counted due to them not being delivered in time. These did not contribute to the voter turnout and were in all likelihood irrelevant to the resultant according to political scientist Kasper Møller Hansen.[21][22]
Despite the blue block and the Moderates combined gaining 68,209 more votes than the combined red block, the red block still managed to secure a majority of 90 seats in itself. Apart from three out of four North Atlantic seats going to red parties, this was due to a never previously used section in the election law (section 77, subsection 3) that secured the Social Democrats an additional seat that would otherwise have been awarded to Venstre.[23][24][25]
One has the right to vote if one is 18 years old on election day, is a Danish citizen, lives within the Realm (Denmark proper, Greenland and the Faroe Islands) and are not disempowered (umyndiggjort). Disempowerment is for instance mental disabilities. All eligible voters are also eligible to run for election. After the election, all newly elected members of the Folketing must sign a declaration stating that they intend to comply with the Constitution, while the new Folketing must approve the election and the eligibility of the individual members. This is done in the Committee for Electoral Trials (Udvalget til Valgs Prøvelse). After the 2022 election all elected members of the Folketing were approved.[26]
Issues
In her speech announcing the election, Frederiksen declared the election to be a security election (Danish: tryghedsvalg), citing issues such as the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, economic anxiety, and issues in the health system.[27] In the same speech, Frederiksen also declared her intentions to work towards a centrist government with parties from both blocs rather than continue the incumbent one-party minority government.[28]
Frederiksen II first public appearance on 15 December 2022 at Amalienborg after having been presented before the Queen. Frederiksen (in red) with Ellemann to her right and Løkke to her left.
The election was simultaneously the best result for the Social Democrats in more than 20 years and the worst result for Venstre in more than 30 years.[46][47]Mette Frederiksen, the leader of the red bloc and the incumbent prime minister, thanked voters for giving the red bloc a majority; despite winning a slim majority of one seat, she decided to follow her campaign promise and resign in order to seek a new centrist government with parties from both sides of the political spectrum.[48] Following the results, she was congratulated by the prime ministers of Norway and Spain, Jonas Gahr Støre and Pedro Sánchez, both members of her same European political group, the Party of European Socialists.[49][50]
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the leader of the Moderates who had long positioned himself as kingmaker, did not end up with the decisive seats because of the left-leaning majority. Instead, it was the Social Liberals, traditionally a member of the red bloc, that stated a desire of wanting to go beyond bloc politics like the Moderates, despite achieving one of their worst ever results, meaning that along with the Moderates, they could determine the next government.[51]Sofie Carsten Nielsen resigned as leader of the Social Liberals following its poor performance in the election.[52] A total of 64 new politicians were elected to the Folketing for the first time at the 2022 election, the third-most in Danish history, only being trumped by the 1973 and 2011 general elections. The new members are mainly from the Denmark Democrats, Liberal Alliance, and Moderates.[53]
On 23 November, the Red–Green Alliance and The Alternative announced they had left the government negotiations, bringing the number of negotiating parties to 8: the Social Democrats, Venstre, the Moderates, the Green Left, Liberal Alliance, the Conservatives, the Social Liberals and the Danish People's Party. The Denmark Democrats and New Right had earlier left the negotiations.[11] On 3 December, the Conservatives exited the negotiations, reducing the number of negotiating parties to seven.[10][11] The Social Liberals left the negotiations on 13 December.[54] The same day, Mette Frederiksen went to the queen to present her new government, which includes the Moderates and Venstre; the first time the Social Democrats and Venstre formed a government together since 1978. Leader of Venstre, Jakob Elleman-Jensen, became deputy prime minister and minister of defence while leader of the Moderates Lars Løkke Rasmussen was made foreign minister.[55] Nine social democrats lost their ministerial positions.[56] Two ministers, both from the Moderates, are not members of the Folketing.[57]
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