Denmark's PM resigns but hopes to form new centrist government

[November 02, 2022]  COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who narrowly won Tuesday's general election, said she had handed in her resignation to the Queen on Wednesday and will begin exploring a coalition across the political middle.  

Denmark's Prime Minister and head of the the Social Democratic Party Mette Frederiksen speaks during the election night at Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen, Denmark, November 2, 2022. Martin Sylvest/Ritzau Scanpix/via REUTERS

The talks are however expected to be lengthy as both friends and foes of Frederiksen have expressed scepticism of such a coalition, making the outcome uncertain.

The left-leaning bloc, of which Frederiksen's Social Democratic party is a part, got 90 seats, the slimmest possible majority in the 179-seat parliament, while the right-wing bloc got 72 seats and a newly formed centrist party secured 16.

Frederiksen had campaigned on the need for a broad coalition across the traditional left-right divide, arguing that political unity is needed at a time of international uncertainty.

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Terje Solsvik)

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