Denmark’s ruling red bloc wins election

By Leila Nezirevic

LONDON (AA) - Denmark's ruling center-left bloc secured a majority in Tuesday’s general elections, seen as a vote of confidence in Mette Frederiksen, the country's prime minister.

The left “red bloc” led by Frederiksen will be forming a new government with a projected 90 seats in the 179-seat parliament.

After a nerve-wracking and chaotic election night, it was uncertain up until the end if the ruling "red bloc" or the right-leaning "blue bloc" would secure a majority.

Not only did the red bloc win, but the Social Democrats got its second mandate and retained the party’s position as the largest in parliament.

This is its best result in two decades.

Despite her victory, Frederiksen is set to face difficult government negotiations as she had advocated a broad coalition across the traditional left-right divide.

Opposition leader Jakob Ellemann-Jensen of the Liberal Party and its "blue bloc" lost 19 of its 43 seats in parliament.

The "blue bloc" has split and appears to be without a clear leader.

Although former Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen's newly formed Moderates stormed into parliament with 16 seats, he failed to get the key role of kingmaker between the blocs he had hoped for.

The prime minister was forced to call early elections in the wake of a scandal over the slaughter of the country’s 17 million minks in 2020.

She was accused by the opposition parties of breaking the law, and it was concluded that her decision to kill the minks due to fear that COVID-19 could spread in farms lacked a legal basis.