Danish
voters turn on PM Frederiksen over housing costs
After 122
years in power, voters in Copenhagen are turning their backs on the governing
Social Democrats and expressing increased dissatisfaction with the party’s
rightward turn.
November
18, 2025 4:01 am CET
By Aitor
Hernández-Morales
COPENHAGEN
— Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats are staring down a
potential political earthquake in Tuesday’s nationwide local elections.
Polls
predict a drubbing in the very cities that once anchored the party’s power. But
the biggest humiliation may come in Copenhagen, where the Social Democrats are
poised to lose control of city hall for the first time in 122 years.
The
revolt is driven by a familiar urban grievance: The skyrocketing cost of
housing. After decades of turning Copenhagen from a gritty port into one of
Europe’s most livable — and expensive — capitals, the party is now paying for
the prosperity it helped create. But housing isn’t the whole story.
The
election has also become a referendum on Frederiksen’s centrist makeover — a
strategy that’s seen the party ally with economic liberal parties and take one
of Europe’s toughest stances on migration.
Those
moves may have shored up support in small towns, but in Copenhagen, they’ve
cost the party its soul.
Frederiksen’s
ability to remain in power since 2019 has been a success story for Europe’s
beleaguered Party of European Socialists. But the crumbling of the Social
Democrats’ dominance in Copenhagen is set to bolster those arguing the
center-left needs to return to its working-class origins and focus on issues
such as affordable housing and economic equity.
A city
transformed, a voting base lost
The
Social Democrats have been in power in Copenhagen for so long that when they
first took control of the city in 1903, the current city hall building — a
neo-renaissance palace “guarded” by stone bears and bronze dragons — was still
under construction.
During
the 20th century, the Social Democrats represented the blue-collar workers of
the bustling port city. But anticipating the decline of industrial activity in
Copenhagen, in the late 1990s the party began to focus on turning the Danish
capital into a polished magnet for global companies, urban professionals and
international students.
“The
Social Democrats can take credit for transforming Copenhagen from a city
without investments into a global model city with efficient infrastructure,
strong educational institutions, green spaces, swimming in the harbor, an
impressive gastronomic scene, and a high level of safety,” said sociologist and
political analyst Carsten Mai.
But that
metamorphosis has come with soaring real estate prices that have pushed many
working-class families out of the city entirely and strained those who remain.
“The
price of an average 80 square meter, owner-occupied apartment has increased by
20 percent over the past year and by 29 percent over the past four years,” said
Lise Nytoft Bergmann, chief housing economist at Nordea Credit. “The sharp
price increases have made it significantly harder for young people, singles,
and low-income households to find housing in Copenhagen.”
Bent
Winther, political commentator at the media company Berlingske, pointed out the
housing crisis had been particularly detrimental for the Social Democrats’
voting base in the capital.
“The
overall number of unionized, blue-collar and public sector workers who have
historically voted for the party has declined over the last decades,” he said.
“Those that are left — people who work in hospitals, kindergartens, etc — can’t
really afford to live here anymore.”
Leadership
blunders
The
Social Democrats’ hold on Copenhagen has been weakening for years, partly as a
result of problems with its leaders at the local level.
In 2020,
Mayor Frank Jensen resigned after sexual harassment allegations came to light,
and his successor, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, was moved to a ministerial position
in a 2023 maneuver widely believed to have been motivated by the party’s lack
of confidence in her chances for reelection. Seasoned national politician
Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil was brought in to revive the Social Democrats’
fortunes in the capital, but her stint as lead candidate has inadvertently
accentuated the party’s disconnection with the electorate.
As
Denmark’s minister for housing between 2022 and 2024, the Social Democrats’
candidate has struggled to disassociate herself from her own failure to address
the escalating housing crisis. After calling for the construction of more
affordable housing in Copenhagen during an electoral debate, Line Barfod, head
of the far-left Red-Green Alliance, accused Rosenkrantz-Theil of ignoring the
issue during her time in the national government and rushing to address it “in
the final sprint of the campaign.”
The
candidate also angered green-minded voters who had previously backed the Social
Democrats by reversing the party’s support for measures to limit car access to
the city, and abruptly promising to reintroduce parking spots to make life
easier for drivers.
Elisabet
Svane, political analyst for Danish newspaper Politiken, said that
Rosenkrantz-Theil’s campaign had ambitiously incorporated policy changes
calculated to make the Social Democrats stand apart from far-left parties that
are able to take more hardline positions on green topics like parking.
“She took
ownership of what was a traditionally conservative position, and argued that
it’s a Social Democrat value to have the right to a car, to drive around,”
Svane said.
But the
strategy doesn’t appear to have paid off. Polls project that the left-wing
groups pushing green policies and affordability issues will outperform the
Social Democrats on Tuesday. Barfod’s Red-Green Alliance is expected to secure
nearly one in four votes, while the Socialist People’s Party is projected to
double its support to 22 percent.
Denmark’s
Social Democrats, Prime Minister Frederiksen, and Rosenkrantz-Theil did not
respond to POLITICO’s requests for comment.
Frederiksen’s
centrism meets left-leaning capital
Beyond
local missteps, the Social Democrats’ decline in Copenhagen is tied to urban
voters’ broader dissatisfaction with the measures adopted by Frederiksen’s
right-leaning coalition government.
While
Frederiksen’s hawkish defense policies and support for Ukraine have proved
broadly popular, her hardline stance on immigration has been far more
controversial. The policies have played well in rural Denmark, but are
alienating voters in the urban areas that have traditionally been the Social
Democrats’ base — among them, Copenhagen, where non-natives make up 20 percent
of the electorate.
“Everybody
agrees we have to have an orderly policy on migration and fight Islamism, but
what’s at issue is the government’s tone,” said Svane, who relayed the
complaints of Social Democratic mayors in surrounding communities who said the
party’s harsh rhetoric against foreigners was undermining its position at the
local level.
Beyond
the migration issue, political analyst Mai said the party was increasingly out
of step with Denmark’s ever-more progressive urban electorate. “Many of them
are focused on value-based issues such as social justice and the war in Gaza,”
he said. “The Social Democrats have failed to adjust their policies to align
with these voters.”
A warning
for Europe’s center-left
Denmark
and Spain are the only two major EU countries still governed by members of the
Party of European Socialists, and the approaches taken by their leaders are
frequently contrasted.
While
Frederiksen has embraced centrism, bolstered defense spending, and cracked down
on migration, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has taken the opposite tack,
forging a “progressive coalition” with left-wing parties, prioritizing social
spending over military budgets, and adopting a more welcoming posture toward
migrants.
Political
commentator Winther said Frederiksen’s approach had been successful in clamping
down on the far-right in Denmark, “because she sucked the oxygen out of their
argument by taking such a hard line on the key issue of migration.” But, he
added, the party’s rightward drift under her leadership had “created confusion
about what it actually stands for.”
That’s a
challenge in a city like Copenhagen, which is “now composed of a lot of young
people attracted by our big universities, and some quite rich people who can
afford to both stay in the city and have more left-wing values.”
Denmark
must hold a general election within the next year, and losses in Copenhagen and
other Danish cities could put pressure on Frederiksen to change course.
The
dominant narrative in Europe is that far-right forces are steadily advancing by
campaigning on cost-of-living issues that establishment parties appear to be
incapable of addressing. But Tuesday’s election in Copenhagen is notable
because the likely winners are unabashedly left-wing forces that have embraced
topics such as the housing crisis. The development mirrors Democratic Socialist
Zohran Mamdani’s recent, headline-grabbing victory in New York City, which was
keenly watched by Europe’s leftists.
Nicoline
Kristine Ryde, a 27-year-old actress who lives in Copenhagen, summed up the
mood by saying the Social Democrats simply aren’t “cool” anymore.
“I
respect how Frederiksen handled the corona crisis, and the Social Democrats are
still good on stuff like elder care, but for the rest, it just feels like they
moved away from the social politics that have made this country great,” she
said. “They just don’t feel like a socialist party anymore.”
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