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Today in Denmark For Members

Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Wednesday

Michael Barrett
Michael Barrett - [email protected]
Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Wednesday
Stemmeurnerne tømmes og stemmeoptællerne går igang på valgstedet i Aalborg Kongres og Kulturcenter åbner, tirsdag den 16. november 2021. Der stemmes til Regionrådsvalg og Kommunalvalg den 16. november i Danmark. (Foto: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix)

Find out what's going on in Denmark today with The Local's short roundup of the news in less than five minutes.

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Local election results in 

The results from the municipal and regional elections have been streaming in since yesterday evening and throughout the night and there’s plenty to unpack.

The Social Democrats took Frederiksberg, the Copenhagen municipality that has had a Conservative mayor for over a century, in one of the races we predicted could be tight.

But Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s party did not perform well at the polls overall, despite this historic triumph.

The Danish People’s Party meanwhile flopped badly – leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl last night suggested all bets were off as to whether he would continue in the role.

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Elsewhere, the Conservative party can convincingly argue they were the biggest winners after translating their national popularity to increased local vote shares, while the other big conservative party, the Liberals (Venstre) performed better than expected.

The far-left Red Green Alliance won the biggest vote share in Copenhagen, humiliating the Social Democrats in the capital – but it is the latter party which retains the mayor’s office.

We’ll have full reports with all the main headlines and analysis in articles on our website today.

All votes counted – turnout 67 percent

All votes in each of the 98 municipalities have now been counted, newspaper Jyllands-Posten reported earlier this morning. The turnout, 67 percent, comes despite concerns voiced by authorities that high Covid-19 infection numbers would put voters off casting ballots.

Municipalities in negotiations over mayor job

Over 80 of the 98 Danish municipalities have now settled their mayoral races, broadcaster DR reports. But that leaves more than a handful still locked in negotiations.

Because single parties do not usually take an overall majority in Danish elections, agreements are usually needed between parties to govern together and point to a lead candidate from a party to become mayor. This is usually – but not always – the candidate from the party which has the biggest vote share.

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