Denmark General election 2019 — Results

At a glance

The 2019 Danish general election, held on 5 June 2019, returned the centre-left to power and made Mette Frederiksen, at 41, the youngest prime minister in Danish history. Dubbed the "climate election" (klimavalget) for the prominence of environmental concern, it also confirmed a dramatic collapse of the populist right and a striking convergence of the main parties on a restrictive immigration policy.

The rules of the game

The 179-member Folketing is elected by proportional representation, with 175 seats in Denmark proper (135 constituency plus 40 levelling seats) and two each for the Faroes and Greenland; the threshold is 2%. The system's high proportionality and Denmark's bloc politics mean elections are usually decided not by who is largest but by whether the "red" or "blue" bloc can muster 90 seats.

The campaign trail

Two themes defined the campaign. The first was climate change, pushed up the agenda by a hot summer, school strikes and Green parties across Europe; it dominated debate and boosted the left. The second was immigration: the Social Democrats, under Frederiksen, had decisively shifted to a hardline stance, supporting the existing tough asylum regime, which neutralised the issue that had powered the populist right and allowed left-leaning voters to return to the party.

The result

The Social Democrats won 25.90% and 48 seats, narrowly up on 2015, while Venstre recovered strongly to 23.39% and 43. The defining number, though, was the Danish People's Party's collapse: from 21.08% to just 8.74%, more than halving its seats to 16. Its voters scattered — some to the Social Democrats, some to two new hard-right parties, the New Right (Nye Borgerlige, 4 seats) and the anti-Islam Hard Line (Stram Kurs), which narrowly missed the threshold. The Social Liberals surged to 16, the Socialist People's Party to 14, and the Red–Green Alliance took 13. Together the red bloc won 93 of 179 seats.

Turnout and the map

Turnout was 84.6%. The Social Democrats again led in most of the country, but Venstre's rural strength was enough to top the poll in the region of Central Jutland (Midtjylland). The map above shows the leading party by region; click any region for the full breakdown.

After the vote

After three weeks of negotiations, Mette Frederiksen formed a single-party Social Democratic minority government — unusual in modern Denmark — supported by the Social Liberals, the Socialist People's Party and the Red–Green Alliance on the basis of a written "understanding" that promised a greener and more socially generous course while maintaining the strict immigration line. Her government would go on to legislate a binding 70% emissions-cut target and to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and the contentious 2020 mink cull.

Source

Official results from Statistics Denmark (Danmarks Statistik) — dst.dk/valg. The regional map is built from the agency's results by municipality, aggregated to the five regions.

Compiled and reviewed from official results by ElectioMap. See our data methodology.