Denmark: Frederiksen calls snap election
Danish voters will elect a new parliament on 24 March after the country's Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced a snap election yesterday. The vote would have had to take place no later than 31 October anyway, but the announcement comes as no surprise as Fredriksen's popularity has soared since the Greenland crisis. Whether she can and wants to continue with the current three-party coalition remains to be seen.
Difficult decisions ahead
Politiken hopes the election will produce a secure mandate for the governing majority:
“If this coalition government had not already been formed in 2022, it would have had to be created in response to the current crises resulting from the war in Ukraine and the failure of the United States. ... Our many decades under the American security umbrella have come to an end. How should Denmark and Europe deal with this? Should we build a joint defence in the Nordic region or perhaps even move towards European nuclear weapons? The decisions are many and difficult, but there is no getting around them in a general election that should be about leadership and direction in a time of international upheaval and national insecurity.”
To-do list requires fresh leadership
For its part Berlingske would like to see a change of government:
“A conservative government will be better able to tackle the problems that need to be addressed in a more proactive manner. ... These include the unresolved issues surrounding immigration; the transformation of Denmark into a defence nation that can guarantee its own security; the necessary reforms at national and EU level to free Denmark and Europe from their current regulatory and bureaucratic hellhole and ensure growth and innovation; an economically sustainable green transition; and the protection of citizens' fundamental rights, also in their dealings with the state.”