Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Thursday called a general election for March 24, setting up a high-stakes vote framed by security concerns, fraught ties with the United States over Greenland and ongoing tensions with Russia.
“Whether I will continue to be your prime minister depends on how strong a mandate you give the Social Democrats in the parliamentary election to be held on March 24, 2026,” Frederiksen said as she outlined her platform, which includes reforming the retirement age and introducing a wealth tax. “Security policy is and will remain the very foundation of Danish politics for many, many years to come.”
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Under Denmark’s parliamentary rules, a vote had to be called within four years of the last election on Nov. 1, 2022. Frederiksen, who first took office in 2019 and won reelection in 2022 at the head of a cross-aisle coalition, is making her case as a steady hand while signaling a recalibration of relations with Washington. Over the next four years, Denmark will also have to “stand on our own feet,” she said, adding that ties with the United States—Copenhagen’s closest ally—would have to be redefined.
The election comes as Copenhagen navigates sensitive talks with Washington and Greenland, the autonomous Arctic territory, over the island’s future and the scope of U.S. influence there. U.S. President Donald Trump’s stated desire to acquire Greenland had strained relations; earlier threats he made to seize the island, by force if necessary, have ebbed since he struck a “framework” deal with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to ensure greater U.S. influence. Denmark has insisted that only Greenland and Denmark can decide the island’s fate.
NATO has since launched an Arctic mission, dubbed Arctic Sentry, to strengthen the alliance’s presence in the region. The evolving security landscape—shaped by Arctic competition and Russia’s war in Ukraine—has become central to Denmark’s political debate. Copenhagen is among Kyiv’s most ardent military and civilian backers, a stance Frederiksen cast as part of a broader national security imperative.
Domestically, the prime minister is seeking to convert recent diplomatic visibility into electoral traction. Her Social Democrats, however, enter the campaign after setbacks in last year’s European and local elections, including the loss of Copenhagen—ending more than a century of Social Democrat rule in the capital. A TV2 poll published last week put the party at 21% of the vote, which would keep it Denmark’s largest but represents a drop of 6.5 percentage points from the 2022 general election.
Coalition dynamics could again shape the outcome. Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, leader of the centrist Moderates and a partner in Frederiksen’s government, signaled reluctance about the timing, telling reporters, “If it were up to us, we would have waited a bit.” He added, “We had not planned for there to be elections, but now there are, and of course we are ready.”
Frederiksen, the daughter of a typesetter and a childcare assistant, became Denmark’s youngest prime minister at 41. Her centrist coalition in 2022 was a break with tradition in a political system long organized along left-right blocs. The coming campaign will test whether voters reward that pragmatism amid a sharpened focus on pensions, tax fairness and national security—or whether they push for change as Europe heads into another period of geopolitical strain.
What is clear is that Greenland and Denmark’s strategic posture in the Arctic will loom over the race. With negotiations ongoing and NATO’s Arctic Sentry underway, Copenhagen’s insistence on Danish-Greenlandic primacy in decision-making will be a defining theme as parties court voters concerned about sovereignty, security and the cost of living.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
