For the first time in a hundred years, Copenhagen will not be governed by a social democrat. After last Tuesday’s local and regional elections, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s party lost control of 15 chambers in the country, including that of the capital. After the current president of the Chamber, Lars Henrik Weiss, made it clear that he was not running (he assumed the interim leadership of the municipality in 2024 due to the departure of Sophie Hæstorp Andersen to take up a position in the government), the hopes of the Social Democrats resided in Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil, according to Le Monde a personal choice of Frederiksen. But not even the letter sent by the candidate to the inhabitants of the capital warning against a victory for the “red” parties prevented Sisse Marie Welling, the candidate of the Popular Socialist Party (now Green Left) from receiving the most votes and starting to govern the city from January 1, 2026.
Despite having been the party with the most votes, at national level, in terms of overall percentage, with 23.2%, the Social Democrats fell by 5.2 percentage points compared to the 2021 local elections. A greater decline than the formation of the rose was expected, despite low expectations, remaining only to govern three dozen of the country’s 98 chambers, while the Liberal Party, its government partner, controls four dozen.
For Carsten Rasmussen, mayor from the small town of Naevstved, another social-democratic stronghold for more than a century and which, in this case, turned to the right, the results reveal “a form of lassitude towards the government”, but also, as I told the The politics“a desire to punish Mette”.
This is the second time that the Danes have punished the prime minister’s party at the polls. The other was in the 2024 European elections, when the Social Democrats had to settle for second place and 15.5% of the votes. At the time, the result was seen as a rejection of Frederiksen, who chose to govern with the liberals and moderates (center-right) after the 2022 legislative elections, instead of with traditional left-wing allies. Since then, the leader of the Social Democrats has oscillated between reaffirming her commitment to the left, as when she said she would oppose raising the retirement age beyond 70, and appeals to voters tempted to vote for the Danish People’s Party (DF, extreme right), having criticized Muslims, accusing them of not making efforts to integrate into Danish society.
With the next legislative elections having to be scheduled no later than October 31, 2026, Frederiksen has just under a year to win back lost voters and to prove that those like Christian Jensen, the director of The politicsa newspaper founded in 1884, consider it “more part of the problem than the solution”.
Executive editor of Diário de Notícias