COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced Thursday that the Scandinavian country will hold a parliamentary election on March 24, giving voters a say several months early as the country digests a standoff with the U.S. over President Donald Trump's designs on Greenland.
Voters will determine who sits in the Folketing, or parliament. It has 179 seats — 175 of which go to lawmakers representing Denmark and two apiece to lawmakers from the kingdom’s two semiautonomous territories, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
“It is now up to you, the voters, to decide what direction Denmark will take over the next four years. And I am looking forward to it,” Frederiksen said as she made her announcement in parliament.
A general election must be held at least every four years but the prime minister of the NATO and European Union member country can call one at any time. The last election was held on Nov. 1, 2022, and resulted in a three-party coalition that crosses the left-right divide.
Frederiksen, a center-left Social Democrat, has led Denmark since mid-2019. She currently leads a government with the Liberal Party of Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen and the centrist Moderate party of Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, a former prime minister.
A major challenge for the government over the past year was Trump's push for U.S. control of Greenland, which culminated in his short-lived threat last month to impose new tariffs on Denmark and several other European countries. After that escalation, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland started technical talks on an Arctic security deal.
Frederiksen and other Danish and Greenlandic officials have said that they can't negotiate on sovereignty.
Frederiksen made clear earlier this month that she remains wary, although the crisis has cooled. Asked at the Munich Security Conference whether the crisis had passed, she replied: “No, unfortunately not. I think the desire from the U.S. president is exactly the same. He is very serious about this theme.”