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Denmark’s new left-leaning government has pledged to keep pushing back against US pressure over Greenland and address the cost of living crisis, with measures including halving VAT on food and offering free public transport to young people.
“We present a government that will help improve the everyday lives of Danes,” Mette Frederiksen, who will return for a third consecutive term as prime minister at the head of the four-party minority coalition, said on Tuesday.
“We want to provide targeted support to those Danes who have been hit hard by rising petrol and diesel prices,” the prime minister said, adding that the measures were “concrete” and “reflect the way we want to be as a government”.
Announced late on Monday, the agreement between Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, the Social Liberals, the Green Left and the centrist Moderates ended two months of uncertainty after March elections in which 12 parties won seats in parliament.
The new government coalition marks a shift to the left for the 48-year-old prime minister, who for the past four years has headed an unlikely left-right alliance. With only 82 of the 179 seats in parliament, it will rely mainly on the support of the left-wing Red-Green Alliance for a parliamentary majority.
The government’s immediate priorities include ongoing diplomatic talks with the US and Nato over Greenland, a Danish near-autonomous territory that Donald Trump has insisted Washington needs to control for national security reasons.
“The government will stand firm on the kingdom’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and right to self-determination,” the programme said. Denmark’s military will be further expanded amid concerns about US commitment to European security.
To secure the support of the Red-Green Alliance and other left-leaning parties, however, Frederiksen has also undertaken to provide free dental care for Danes within 10 years as well as free public transport for everyone under the age of 22.
VAT on food will be halved, and removed altogether on fruit and vegetables, while less well-off pensioners will receive an extra DKr1,000 (£115) a month. The programme does not include a wealth tax, which Frederiksen proposed during the campaign but which was roundly criticised by business leaders including the chief executive of Lego and the chair of the board of directors of Maersk.
The measures seek to address a cost of living crisis that haunted Frederiksen in the run-up to the 24 March election, in which the Social Democrats – traditionally the country’s largest party – finished first but recorded their lowest score since 1903.
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the outgoing foreign minister and Moderates leader, said the new government was aiming for “redistribution based on solidarity” and “guarantees a steady hand on the tiller in the turbulent times we live in”.
Frederiksen said her incoming administration would stand firm on Denmark’s hardline immigration policy. “That is absolutely crucial for the cohesion of our society, and therefore we want to deport more foreign criminals,” she told reporters.
She added that the government would continue working on establishing reception centres outside the EU – heavily criticised by rights groups – where asylum seekers would be housed while their requests were processed.
After public anger over Denmark’s booming and heavily polluting pig farming industry, accused of animal cruelty during the campaign, other measures included a ban on extreme breeding practices, a move towards bigger stalls and an end to automatic tail-docking.
A government commission involving all interested parties, including the government, NGOs and farmers’ organisations and local municipalities, will be established in an effort to “comprehensively restructure” the sector, Frederiksen said.
Born into a working-class family of longstanding Social Democrats, the daughter of a typographer and a preschool teacher, Frederiksen entered parliament in 2001 aged 24 and took over as leader of the Social Democrats in 2015.
She has radically tightened Denmark’s migration policy in an effort to slow rising support for the far right, while advocating stronger international commitments including staunch support for Ukraine and a big hike in national defence spending.
The new coalition was formed at the third attempt after Frederiksen failed to cobble together a left-leaning alliance straight after the election and Troels Lund Poulsen of the liberal Venstre party also fell short in his efforts to form a right-wing alliance.
The coalition talks were the longest in Denmark’s history and analysts have said the evident difficulty in forming the government, as well as a series of scandals that have weakened Frederiksen since she became prime minister in 2019, may mean it does not survive its full term.
