COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) 鈥� Voters in will decide who runs the Scandinavian country for the next four years in a general election next week, a vote that follows a standoff with U.S. President over the future of the kingdom’s semiautonomous territory of .
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen , apparently hoping that her straight-talking image in the Greenland crisis would win her points with the electorate. If the leader of the center-left Social Democratic party can put together a new government after Tuesday’s vote, she will embark on her third term.
Here is what to know about the vote.
Frederiksen hopes for a third term
The 48-year-old prime minister has led the European Union and NATO member country since mid-2019. She is known for strong in its defense against Russia’s invasion and for a restrictive approach to migration.
In her second term, her support waned as the cost of living rose. But she enjoyed a bump in popularity as the government navigated the crisis over Trump’s designs on Greenland, which in a short-lived threat to impose tariffs on European nations that opposed his call for U.S. control of the vast Arctic island.
University of Copenhagen election researcher Kasper M酶ller Hansen says that, while Frederiksen may cling to power, it鈥檚 possible this election will result in the worst results yet for her party. It could potentially finish short of the 27.5% of the vote it won in 2022.
鈥淪he鈥檚 getting a big burst to her poll results on the topic of Greenland, or the relationship with the United States, or Ukraine,鈥� said M酶ller Hansen. 鈥淥n home turf, she鈥檚 being really challenged.鈥�
Denmark鈥檚 system of proportional representation typically produces coalition governments, traditionally made up of several parties from either left or right. The outgoing administration was the first in decades to straddle the political divide.
Challengers from the right
Frederiksen has two center-right challengers, one inside her current government and one outside it.
Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen leads the Liberal, or Venstre, party. It headed several recent administrations but has polled weakly in recent years.
The Liberal Alliance of 34-year-old Alex Vanopslagh is a rival from the so-called 鈥渂lue bloc鈥� of parties on the right, calling for lower taxes and less bureaucracy, and for Denmark to abandon its refusal to use nuclear power. But a recent admission from Vanopslagh to taking cocaine earlier in his time as party leader may have dented his chances.
Further to the right, the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party looks well-placed to bounce back from a very weak showing in 2022. If neither left-wing or right-wing blocs win a working majority, the centrist Moderate party of Foreign Minister Lars L酶kke Rasmussen could end up as the kingmaker.
Immigration still a hot issue
Denmark has long been known for some of Europe’s toughest immigration policies, and Frederiksen has been instrumental in that.
Seeking to counter pressure from the right and pointing to a possible surge in migration because of the Iran war, she announced proposals this month that include a potential 鈥渆mergency brake鈥� on asylum and tighter controls on criminals who lack legal residence. Her government had already unveiled a plan to allow who have been sentenced to at least one year in prison for serious crimes.
Frederiksen is one of the European leaders pushing to set up so-called 鈥渞eturn hubs鈥� outside the EU for rejected asylum seekers.
Denmark received 1,961 asylum applications last year, a fraction of the more than 21,000 it saw in 2015.
Where pigs come into it
The cost of living, pensions and a potential wealth tax have been among the hot topics in the campaign 鈥� as have pigs.
Denmark is one of the world’s biggest pork exporters. The left-wing Alternative party is calling for greater animal welfare, a whistleblower program in agriculture, and a reduction of animal production to levels required just to feed Denmark鈥檚 population of about 6 million population. That would mean an 86% drop in the number of pigs.
And then there’s Greenland
The territory hasn’t been a significant issue in the campaign because there’s broad agreement on its place in the kingdom.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a huge consensus on our relationship to Greenland and our relationship to foreign powers,鈥� M酶ller Hansen said.
Frederiksen warned in January that an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the . But the crisis has simmered down, at least for now. After on his tariff threats, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland on an Arctic security deal.
In Greenland itself, the election will be a test for the territory’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who has been in office for about a year.
The election campaign has shown cracks in his . A dispute over local ministers campaigning for seats in Copenhagen led to one party withdrawing from his coalition, forcing Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt out of her post. She later quit her party, Siumut.
What Danes are voting for
Voters are electing the Folketing, Denmark鈥檚 single-chamber parliament.
It has 179 seats, 175 of them for lawmakers from Denmark itself and two each for representatives from thinly populated Greenland and the kingdom’s other semiautonomous territory, the Faroe Islands.
More than 4.3 million people are eligible to have their say next week. Turnout is typically high, and was 84.2% in the last election in 2022.
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Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
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