Opposition leader Mette Frederiksen from The Danish Social Democrats leaves after casting her vote during the Danish Parliamentary Election 2019, in Copenhagen, Wednesday 5 June 2019. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The latest on Denmark’s general election (all times local):

The leader of Denmark’s Social Democrats says voters have decided a new direction and a new government in the country’s general elections.

A nearly complete preliminary count from Wednesday’ voting suggests left-leaning parties made gains that if confirmed by final returns would put the Social Democrats back in power after four years in opposition.

Party leader Mette Frederiksen says that “tonight we have gotten a victory” for the center-left. The Social Democrats and four other left-leaning parties appear headed to having 91 seats in the new parliament, one more than a majority.

The Social Democrats are emerging as parliament’s biggest party. It got 26.1% of the votes Wednesday, after a campaign in which the party’s leaders vowed a tough stance against immigration.

Denmark’s center-right prime minister has conceded defeat in general elections where results show left-leaning parties making large gains that will likely put the Social Democrats back in power after four years in opposition.

Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen says he will resign Thursday from the post he has held since 2015. His Liberal Party is getting 23.4% of the votes in Wednesday’s elections, which is an improvement. But a huge loss by the populist Danish People’s Party means he will no longer muster a majority in the 179-seat Folketing.

Loekke Rasmussen says his government will continue as caretaker, and adds that he will recommend a governing coalition with the Social Democrats and his Liberal Party.

Exit polls in Denmark say that the opposition bloc that includes the center-left Social Democrats will get the most votes in the general election.

The polls by broadcaster DR mean that the Social Democrats, which took a tougher stance on immigration, are on course to return to power after four years in opposition.

The party led by Mette Frederiksen got 25.3% of the vote, according to the exit polls and would be supported by other left-leaning parties that also made gains. Together they will get 90 seats – which is a majority.

The center-right side would only get 75 seats in the 179-seat parliament. The remaining four seats are held by lawmakers on the Faeroe Islands and Greenland — two Danish semi-autonomous territories.

And unlike in other European countries, far-right populists aren’t on the rise. Denmark’s second-largest party, the populist Danish People’s Party, which has been supporting the minority government, got 9.8% compared to 21.1% in 2015, according to the DR exit polls.

The DR exit polls were based on 4,550 people who were interviewed after casting their ballots.

Polling stations across Denmark have opened in a general election to renew the 179-seat Folketing at the end of its four-year term.

Unlike in other European countries, far-right populists don’t seem to be on the rise here, and the center-left Danish Social Democrats may come back to power after four years in opposition, albeit on a tough immigration line.

The five-party so-called red bloc that includes the Social Democrats faces a center-right blue bloc that is losing steam and is splintered into eight parties, of which three are newcomers, including two openly anti-Muslim groups.

The Social Democrats, Denmark’s largest party, have “a positive feeling about this election,” said Nicolai Wammen, the party’s No. 2 official, while warning against calling it a done deal. </s> Denmark's Social Democrat leader has announced she will form a minority government after reaching an agreement with three left and centre-left parties after weeks of negotiations.

"Now we have reached the goal... we have shown that when Danes vote as they have done, a new majority can turn their hopes into actions," said Mette Frederiksen, who at 41 years old will become Denmark's youngest ever prime minister.

In a country where minority governments are the norm, the negotiations centred around conflicting demands on climate, economic and immigration policy.

Frederiksen said she will present the 18-page agreement on Wednesday, with the new government expected to be unveiled on Thursday.

The three-week negotiations were the longest in Denmark since 1988.

"It is a political document, one of the first in the world, that really defines green ambitions," she said, highlighting one of key concerns among voters and left-wing parties.

"We will develop a climate plan, a binding law on climate and reduce greenhouse emissions by 70 per cent."

The opposition Social Democrats won a June 5 general election as expected with 25.9 percent of votes, ousting Liberal prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen after several of his key allies suffered scathing losses at the polls.

With the backing of the three allies, the Social Democrats will hold a majority of 91 of 179 seats in parliament, while the right-wing won 79.

The Social Democrats adopted much of the far-right's hardline ideology and rhetoric on immigration, like most other parties in Denmark, pulling the rug out from under the far-right.

But under the agreement, the future government will welcome refugees using a quota system and abandon a plan to place migrants pending deportation on an uninhabited island.

The daily Politiken newspaper said Frederiksen had managed to keep some room for manoeuver in her agreement, with "all disagreements duly omitted".

But it added that retirement, housing and defence were likely to emerge as potential disputes. </s> Social Democrat Mette Frederiksen became Denmark's youngest ever prime minister Wednesday after finalizing the support of three other leftist parties to form government.

Frederiksen, 41, will lead a one-party minority government backed by the Socialist People’s Party, the Red-Green Alliance and the Social-Liberal Party.

A left-wing opposition bloc won a majority at Denmark's June 5 election, ending the rule of former conservative Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, but it took three weeks for Frederiksen to secure majority support for her new government.

"It is with great pleasure I can announce that after three weeks of negotiations, we have a majority to form a new government," she said, according to Reuters.

The June 5 left-wing electoral victory signalled Danish voters' rejection of austerity politics. The Social Democrats, who lost ground compared to the 2015 election but still hold the largest vote share, campaigned on a platform of higher taxes to bolster the welfare system.

In her bid for the prime ministership, Frederiksen mediated disagreement among the leftists on issues such as immigration and welfare. She rose to prominence with a pro-welfare, anti-immigration stance. But the new governing bloc will soften slightly on immigration, including allowing more foreign labor and reversing government plans to hold foreign criminals off-shore. Binding emissions targets were also part of the new government agreement.

Denmark's Social Democrats join their Finnish and Swedish counterparts in securing electoral victories in 2019. </s> Denmark has elected a young, female, centre-left leader, completing a socialist sweep of the EU's nordic states.

It also humiliated the country's main far-right party, but only after the left poached its anti-immigrant ideas.

Migrant life-jackets on display in art installation in Copenhagen city centre (Photo: TeaMeister)

"After tonight, we will put welfare first in Denmark again. Welfare, climate, education, children, future. Think of what we can do together. We now have the hope to change Denmark," Mette Frederiksen, the leader of the Social Democrat party, said after results came in on Wednesday (5 June) night.

The 41-year old, who first became an MP at the age of 24, spoke after her party won 48 out of 179 seats in the Danish parliament.

Most of the other parties in the centre-left bloc also did well.

The Social Liberals, formerly led by Denmark's EU commissioner Margerthe Vestager, doubled its seats from eight to 16.

The Socialist People's Party also doubled seats from seven to 14, while the Red-Green Alliance lost one to win 13.

That gave them a majority of 91, putting Frederiksen on course to become the country's second-ever female prime minister after Helle Thorning-Schmidt in 2011.

The centre-right bloc won 75 seats.

The figure includes the so-called Liberals party of incumbent prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, which gained nine MPs to get 43.

Rasmussen accepted defeat and offered to form a grand coalition with Frederiksen.

"We had a really good election" and "Denmark is a better country now than it was four years ago," he said.

"As things stand, Mette Frederiksen has a chance to form a government, [but] I don't think it will be easy for her," he added.

He would be "standing by the phone" for coalition talks, he also said.

The Danish centre-left victory comes after socialist parties also won elections in Finland and Sweden during the past year, creating a left-wing bloc in the EU north, despite dire predictions of a right-wing surge in Europe.

At the same time, Denmark's far-right Danish People's Party (DPP) lost 21 seats to gain just 16 on Wednesday in its worst result since 1998.

A new far-right party, Stram Kurs, which wants to ban Islam, failed to reach the two-percent threshold to enter parliament.

Frederiksen had campaigned on promises to increase public spending, lower the retirement age, and hike taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals, amid steady growth following years of austerity.

"This has been a welfare election, and the voters' verdict has been completely clear. From now on, we make welfare the top priority in Denmark," she said.

She had also promised to fight climate change - a leading concern for most Danish voters, especially young ones.

Anti-migrant platform

But the socialist shine was dulled by Frederiksen's adoption of right-wing immigration policies, such as confiscating jewellery from asylum seekers, banning Islamic face veils, and seeking harsher criminal penalties for perpetrators in migrant ghettoes.

Another new far-right party, the New Right, led by Pernille Vermund, who says Muslim immigration could lead to civil war and mass rape, also entered the Danish parliament for the first time, winning four seats.

And the DPP claimed a moral victory by saying that its influence on Danish politics in recent times had shifted the country to the right.

"We succeeded in making a lot of restrictions in Denmark the last few years - we have the lowest asylum figures since 2009. Maybe [that's why] the issue now isn't so big for the public," Peter Skaarup, its parliamentary speaker, said.

Frederiksen played down her anti-migrant tactics in her victory remarks.

"Some Social Democrat voters who have been lost in the last few years, who didn't support our migration policy, are returning this time", she noted.

But her hardline stance is not shared by her coalition partners, creating potential obstacles in government talks.

Frederiksen does "not have a mandate without us. The Social Democrats do not have a victory. Their supporting parties, the green parties, have won," Martin Lidegaard, the deputy head of the Social Liberals, said. </s> Social Democrats in Denmark get support to form new govt

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Three left-wing parties in Denmark are backing the center-left Social Democrats to form a one-party minority government.

The 18-page deal would make the Social Democrats' leader, 41-year-old Mette Frederiksen, the country's youngest prime minister after the left-leaning party won the June 5 election.

The Social Democrats won by embracing restrictive immigration policies, a pragmatic tactic that involved returning to the party's anti-migrant roots after two decades of relatively more liberal policies. Denmark's largest party has been in the opposition for the past four years.

Despite differences over welfare and immigration, the left-leaning parties want to back Frederiksen, who is expected to form a government in the next few days. Minority Cabinets are common in Denmark.

The deal came late Tuesday after 21 days of talks with the Social People's Party, the Red Green Unity List and the centrist Social Liberals.

Frederiksen said the deal identified several goals, including promoting integration in Denmark; basing immigration on "common sense;" reversing the previous government's decision not to accept any refugees under a U.N. quota system; fighting plastic pollution; and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70% ahead of 2030.

The U.N. refugee agency has made deals with countries, including Denmark, to take in refugees. Since 1989, Denmark has accepted about 500 such refugees every year.

The four Danish parties also agreed to drop plans to put rejected asylum-seekers and foreigners convicted of crimes on a tiny island that formerly housed facilities for researching contagious animal diseases. They also would reverse some austerity measures in health care and education.

The June 5 elections for Denmark's 179-seat Folketing, or Parliament, dealt a blow to the populist, anti-immigration Danish People's Party, which had been supporting Denmark's center-right prime minister, who resigned. Former Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen failed to keep a majority in parliament after his allies saw their vote share plunge to 8.7% in the June election from 21.1% in 2015. </s> Denmark's centre-right prime minister resigned Thursday after a general election that ended with a gain for left-leaning parties and a big loss for populists who were supporting the government.

Lars Loekke Rasmussen's resignation means the centre-left Social Democrats, Denmark's largest party, will start talks to form a one-party minority government.

Social Democrat Leader Mette Frederiksen had rejected forming a coalition with Loekke Rasmussen's Liberals.

Loekke Rasmussen failed to maintain a majority in parliament after his allies, the populist Danish People's Party, saw their vote share plunge to 8.7 per cent in Wednesday's election from 21.1 per cent in 2015.

Rune Stubager, a politics professor at Denmark's University of Aarhus, said the election results showed a "considerable swing to the left" on the topics of welfare and climate.

Mette Frederiksen of the Danish Social Democrats thanks supporters after the election results poured in at Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen early Thursday. Rasmussen has the opportunity to form the next government. (Liselotte Sabroe/AFP/Getty Images)

The Social Democrats are promising to put welfare first again and reverse some of centre-right government's cuts. But they also say they will seek support from the right on immigration issues, and will continue the current government's tough anti-immigration stance.

Pressed by his populist supporters, Loekke Rasmussen's government has tightened immigration laws in recent years. Face-covering garments have been banned, and newly arrived asylum seekers are required to hand over valuables such as jewelry and gold to help pay for their stays.

Strong turnout

Last year, Denmark made international headlines when officials decided rejected asylum seekers or those with a criminal record awaiting expulsion should be sent to an island that once housed a defunct laboratory for contagious animal diseases.

Stubager called the election outcome "a disaster" for the populists because voters are dissatisfied the protest party "is part of the political establishment."

Like their counterparts in neighbouring Sweden, Denmark's Social Democrats have opted for a tougher stance on immigration since the 2015 refugee crisis, when hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers sought shelter in European countries. Sweden's Social Democratic government has sharply restricted immigration, reversing a long tradition of welcoming migrants and refugees.

On Thursday, Loekke Rasmussen formally handed over his resignation to Queen Margrethe, Denmark's figurehead monarch, at the Amalienborg Palace.

Talks to form a new government, expected to begin later Thursday, could take weeks.

Turnout in Wednesday's election was 85.5 per cent, according to official figures, slightly lower than in the 2015 elections. </s> Denmark's Social Democrat leader has announced she will form a minority government after reaching an agreement with three left and centre-left parties, weeks after a general election.

"Now we have reached the goal... we have shown that when Danes vote as they have done, a new majority can turn their hopes into actions," said Mette Frederiksen, who at 41 is set to become the country's youngest-ever prime minister.

Denmark has become the third Nordic country this year to form a leftist government.

While the new left-leaning government is unlikely to fundamentally change Denmark's economic policy, Frederiksen has promised to increase welfare spending after years of austerity.

A bloc of five left-leaning opposition parties led by Frederiksen's Social Democratic Party won a majority in a June 5 election, prompting centre-right leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen to resign as prime minister.

"It is with great pleasure I can announce that after three weeks of negotiations, we have a majority to form a new government," she said.

Ageing populations have prompted Nordic governments to chip away at the cradle-to-grave welfare state, but the June 5 election showed clear support among Danish voters for leftist parties. It also dealt a blow to right-wing nationalists, who lost more than half of their votes compared with 2015.

While the leftist opposition bloc received a convincing majority, support for the Social Democratic Party declined slightly compared with the 2015 vote. But it remained the country's biggest party.

Despite differences among left-leaning parties over issues such as welfare and immigration, Frederiksen got their backing to form a one-party minority government, a common arrangement in Denmark.

Frederiksen's Social Democrats will have to rely on the Socialist People's Party, the Red-Green Alliance and the Social-Liberal Party - formerly headed by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager - to pass laws in the 179-seat parliament.

The four parties agreed to soften some tough measures on immigration, including abandoning a plan by the previous government to hold foreign criminals on a tiny island.

The parties also said they agreed on a plan to allow more foreign labour, on further measures to eliminate rising inequality and on a plan to create a binding law on the reduction of emissions.

Following spending cuts by successive governments to reduce the public deficit, which has resulted in an erosion of traditional welfare services, the Social Democrats campaigned for an increase in spending and making businesses and the wealthy pay more toward welfare through higher taxes.

Many Danes, who like counterparts in other Nordic states pay some of the highest taxes in the world to underpin their welfare system, worry that further austerity will erode the universal healthcare, education and elderly services long seen as a given. </s> Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen says elections to renew Denmark's 179-seat parliament will be held June 5 as his three-party governing coalition appears to be behind in opinion polls.

Recent polls show the center-right government bloc, which includes the anti-immigration Danish People's Party, is trailing behind the five-party, center-left opposition headed by the Social Democrats.

Under Denmark's Constitution, a vote must be held by June 17, when the current Parliament, elected in 2015, completes its term.

Loekke Rasmussen, who heads the Liberals, has been in power since 2015. In November 2016 he formed a coalition with the smaller Liberal-Alliance and the Conservatives, but it still depends on the populist Danish People's Party to muster a majority.

The current government has notably adopted laws tightening asylum and immigration rules. </s> Mette Frederiksen of The Danish Social Democrats address the media after finalizing the government negotiations shortly after midnight at Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen, Denmark, early Wednesday June 26, 2019. Frederiksen announced that The Danish Social Democrats will form a minority government backed by three other left-wing parties. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Three left-wing parties in Denmark are backing the center-left Social Democrats to form a one-party minority government.

The deal would make the Social Democrats’ leader, 41-year-old Mette Frederiksen, the country’s youngest prime minister after the left-leaning party won the June 5 election.

The Social Democrats won by embracing restrictive immigration policies, a pragmatic tactic that involved returning to the party’s anti-migrant roots after two decades of relatively more liberal policies. Denmark’s largest party had been in the opposition for the past four years.

Despite differences over welfare and immigration, the left-leaning parties want to back Frederiksen, who is expected to form a government in the next few days. Minority Cabinets are common in Denmark.

Frederiksen admitted it would be a “tough and difficult task.”

“These are four very different parties, and no doubt parties with major disagreements on several political issues,” she said late Tuesday after 21 days of talks with the Social People’s Party, the Red Green Unity List and the centrist Social Liberals.

Frederiksen said the deal identified several goals, including promoting integration in Denmark and reversing the previous government’s decision not to accept any refugees under a U.N. quota system.

The U.N. refugee agency has made deals with countries, including Denmark, to take in refugees. Since 1989, Denmark has accepted about 500 such refugees every year.

The government also wants to fight plastic pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% ahead of 2030, a goal praised by Greenpeace.

The four Danish parties also agreed to drop plans to put rejected asylum-seekers and foreigners convicted of crimes on a tiny island that formerly housed facilities for researching contagious animal diseases. They also would reverse some austerity measures in health care and education.

Inger Stoejberg, the outgoing immigration minister known for being a hardliner, criticized the Social Democrats for striking a deal that compromised their self-declared tough immigration stance. They had promised “a strict immigration policy” but “one can’t trust” them, she said.

The June 5 elections for Denmark’s 179-seat Folketing, or Parliament, dealt a blow to the populist, anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, which had been supporting Denmark’s center-right prime minister, who resigned. Former Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen failed to keep a majority in parliament after his allies saw their vote share plunge to 8.7% in the June election from 21.1% in 2015.
The center-left Social Democrats win 48 of the 179 seats in the Folketing (parliament). Current Liberal Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen concedes defeat, paving the way for Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen, who at 41 is set to be the country's youngest prime minister.