‘Not over yet’: After taking on Trump, Danish PM calls snap vote over Greenland

A snap election in Denmark is about to test popular support for a leader who has taken a hard line on European security and migration while staring down the United States in a dispute over Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will take the country to the polls on March 24 in an early election framed by her robust rejection of US President Donald Trump and his claim to the Arctic territory.

But the outcome depends on whether she can sustain a recent burst in support in the opinion polls after her party, the Social Democrats, suffered a backlash from voters in local government elections in December.

Frederiksen could have waited months to call the election, which must be held by October 31, but named Greenland as an issue that justified going to the polls early.

“This will be a decisive election because it will be in the next four years that we as Danes and as Europeans will really have to stand on our own feet,” she said.

“We must define our relationship with the United States, and we must rearm to ensure peace on our continent.”

In an address to parliament, she argued the “world is not waiting” for Denmark to decide its future at the election.

“As everyone knows, the conflict over Greenland is not over yet,” she added.

The early election was the subject of rumour in the Danish capital this week before Frederiksen announced the date on Thursday (Copenhagen time).

The election will be watched across Europe because Frederiksen and the other major parties in her coalition government are among the strongest supporters of Ukraine.

That contrasts with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is blaming Ukraine for energy shortages in Hungary and turning this into a major campaign issue for elections due on April 12.

Orbán is counting on support from Trump to help him stay in power, gaining the US president’s official endorsement as well as a supportive visit from Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month.

Venstre, the second-largest party in Denmark, has a chance at this election to increase its sway with a free-market agenda under leader Troels Lund Poulsen, currently the junior partner in the coalition government with Frederiksen. Poulsen is deputy prime minister and defence minister.

Another key figure is Lars Løkke Rasmussen, a former prime minister whose party the Moderates forms the third leg of the current coalition government. He is the current foreign minister and led talks over Greenland, matching the hard line against the US.

There are 179 seats in the Danish parliament and the Social Democrats hold 50, making them the biggest party. Venstre, also known as the Liberal Party, hold 23, and the Moderates 12.

The Danish Democrats, a right-wing party, have 16 seats, and the Green Left Party has 15 seats.

Frederiksen has a background in the union movement and was a progressive campaigner in her university years, but has moved the Social Democrats towards a tougher stance against migration in recent years.

“European citizens have a right to feel safe in their own countries,” she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg in a major speech last July.

“That is why we need to strengthen our external borders. We have to lower the influx of migrants to Europe.”

While her stance sparked criticism from the left, she stepped up her argument late last year by joining with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a conservative, to push for tougher EU rules on migration.

In December, she joined British Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer in writing an opinion article calling for new wording in the European Convention on Human Rights to make it harder for migrants to claim asylum.

Other European leaders have thrown their support behind that call and are likely to act at a summit in Moldova in May by issuing a declaration that balances human rights with the responsibility to protect security and public safety.

His recent demand for Greenland has coincided with a gain for Frederiksen in the opinion polls. The Social Democrats increased their support to 22 per cent of the vote in a survey by Voxmeter of 1007 respondents from February 6 to 12.

While this remains lower than the party’s result at the 2022 election, it suggests the Social Democrats remain the single biggest party and would hold the prime minister’s post in a coalition government.

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