Denmark has elected its first female prime minister, ousting the right-wing government from power after 10 years of pro-market reforms and ever-stricter controls on immigration.
Near complete official results showed on Thursday that a left-leaning bloc led by Social Democrat Helle Thorning-Schmidt would gain a narrow majority in the 179-seat Parliament.
“We did it. Make no mistake: We have written history,” the 44-year-old opposition leader told jubilant supporters in Copenhagen. “Today there’s a change of guards in Denmark.”
Photo: Reuters
Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen conceded defeat, saying he would present his Cabinet’s resignation yesterday to Queen Margrethe, Denmark’s figurehead monarch.
“So tonight I hand over the keys to the prime minister’s office to Helle Thorning-Schmidt. And dear Helle, take good care of them. You’re only borrowing them,” Loekke Rasmussen said.
The result means the country of 5.5 million residents will get a new government that could roll back some of the austerity measures introduced by Loekke Rasmussen amid Europe’s debt crisis.
A majority for the “red bloc” also deprives the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party of the kingmaker role it has used to tighten Denmark’s borders and stem the flow of asylum-seekers.
The opposition won 89 of the mainland seats compared to 86 for the governing coalition, according to preliminary results with 100 percent of votes counted. The “red bloc” was expected to win at least two of the four seats allocated to the semiautonomous territories of Greenland and the Faeroe Islands.
A power shift is not likely to yield major changes in consensus-oriented Denmark, where there is broad agreement on the need for a robust welfare system financed by high taxes.
However, the two sides differ on the depth of austerity measures needed to keep Denmark’s finances intact amid the uncertainty of the global economy.
Thorning-Schmidt wants to protect the welfare system by raising taxes on the rich and extending the average working day by 12 minutes.
Loekke Rasmussen, 47, says tax hikes would harm the competitiveness of a nation that already has the highest tax pressure in the world.
Thorning-Schmidt said she would start government formation talks yesterday with the Social Liberals and the left-wing Socialist People’s Party. That coalition can also count on the support of a far-left party, the Red-Green Alliance,
Turnout was 87.7 percent, up from 86.5 four years ago.
The economy emerged as the top election theme, to the chagrin of the Danish People’s Party, which has used its kingmaker role in previous elections to push through immigration laws that are among Europe’s toughest.
Thorning-Schmidt is not likely to make any major changes to those laws, but she has promised to overhaul a system of beefed-up customs controls at borders with Germany and Sweden, which critics say violates the spirit of EU agreements on the free movement of people and goods.
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