Denmark
election: far right has slowed under Frederiksen – but at what cost?
Polling
for anti-immigration DPP is relatively low, but many feel its ideas have been
co-opted by Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats
Miranda
Bryant in Kokkedal
Tue 24
Mar 2026 05.00 GMT
Mayasa
Mandia, a recent graduate living in the small Danish town of Kokkedal, will be
voting for the left in Tuesday’s general election – but it won’t be for Mette
Frederiksen’s Social Democrats.
The
23-year-old, a practising Muslim, says that under Frederiksen’s government
far-right commentary has become normalised in the Danish mainstream. She has
seen this, she says, at her own university, where there were discussions about
banning prayers.
“There
are more important issues to talk about than the skin tone of someone or
whether or not they wear a scarf on their head and whether that scarf is
reflective of our Danish values or not,” said Mandia.
But,
under Frederiksen’s centrist coalition, anti-immigrant rhetoric and
Islamophobia have become increasingly commonplace in Danish politics, she
feels.
On
Tuesday, in an election expected to give Frederiksen a third term as prime
minister, Mandia will be giving her vote to one of the leftwing parties hoping
to form a “red bloc” coalition with the Social Democrats.
Unusually
in a continent where far-right forces are making unprecedented inroads, polling
for the anti-immigration Danish People’s party (DPP) is relatively low – the
party is forecast to garner about 7.5% of the vote, with smaller parties of a
similar bent predicted to pick up a further 9%. Many feel that is not because
their ideas have been vanquished, but because they have been co-opted by
Frederiksen’s centre-left.
The prime
minister’s hardline immigration policies – she came into government in 2019
saying she wanted to cut asylum seeker numbers to zero – have attracted global
attention and inspired similar approaches across Europe, including in Sweden
and, more recently, the UK. Domestically they have been stalling the growth of
the far right, while at the same time pulling rightwing rhetoric and extremist
ideas leftward into the mainstream, say analysts.
DPP
candidate Mikkel Hartwich says: ‘We have to make sure that Denmark is still for
the Danish guys and girls.’ Photograph: Donald Michael Chambers/The Guardian
When, on
the campaign trail, Frederiksen said she did not want Denmark to receive any
refugees from Iran, which is under attack from the US and Israel, Mandia felt
the prime minister was courting those rightwing voters. The difference in her
approach to those fleeing war from Ukraine, she said, was “hypocritical” – and
telling.
“We
should be open to give asylum to them the same way we open to give asylum to
western people affected by war,” she said.
Kokkedal,
which lies north of Copenhagen in Zealand, became a DPP flashpoint back in 2012
after news spread of a decision by a housing association to not have a
Christmas tree but spend money on a celebration for Eid. The association was
accused of waging a “war on Christmas”.
Flyering
outside a branch of Lidl on Monday afternoon, close to the Egedalsvænge housing
estate, DPP candidate Mikkel Hartwich said the row had contributed to his
attraction to the party.
“We have
to make sure that Denmark is still for the Danish guys and girls, and if you
have to come to Denmark you have to contribute,” he said, holding a basket of
mini Haribo sweets. “You have to be careful about what we are and you have to
help with a lot of stuff.”
Michala
Clante Bendixen, who runs the refugee advisory group Refugees Welcome Denmark
and is Denmark’s country coordinator for the European Commission’s Migrant
Integration Hub, said: “What we have seen is the Social Democrats copying the
nationalist parties, especially the Danish People’s party (DPP), and every time
they try to meet them, the nationalist parties will just take it one step
further, then accuse the Social Democrats of not doing anything.”
The
overall effect, she said, had pushed the whole of the political spectrum right
on the issue of immigration. “What used to be extreme ideas that were not taken
seriously by the major parties are now mainstream ideas in Denmark. So they
have pushed the whole scene to the right.”
This was
also reflected in polling, she said. “The general population in Denmark used to
be very open-minded and tolerant compared to other countries in Europe, but now
surveys show we have changed.”
Rune
Stubager, a political science professor at Aarhus University, said that with
the exception of 2015, when they exceeded 20%, “immigration-sceptic” parties
had not been able to grow beyond about 15% of the overall vote.
“Had the
mainstream parties not moved, I would have expected the immigration-sceptic
parties to grow like we’ve seen in other countries where mainstream parties
have not tightened immigration regulation to the same extent,” he added. “So,
in that sense, they have not suppressed the immigration-sceptic parties, but
they have prevented them from growing beyond a certain segment of the
electorate.”
Frederiksen
has been widely predicted to continue as prime minister after the election, but
the last Verian poll, published on Monday, predicted that neither the red nor
the blue bloc would be able to form a majority without the Moderates, putting
the Moderates leader, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, in the position of kingmaker.
Pensioner
Mohammad Iftikhar, 71, said he planned to vote for the Social Democrats. He
liked Frederiksen, he said, particularly for her handling of the Greenland
crisis when Donald Trump threatened to acquire the Arctic island.
The
former university worker, who is from Pakistan and used to live in the UK, said
it was no good Britain trying to copy Denmark’s immigration policies because it
is so much bigger. “This is a small country,” he says. “They have eyes on
everything. They can help everyone. Not in England.” His wife, Hanne Iftikhar,
62, who works for the union 3F, said the current coalition had done well, but
that Frederiksen had gone “a little too far” on immigration.
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