(Bloomberg) — Denmark’s prime minister said she’s open to a grand coalition that would include her political rivals in what would be the first such move in the Nordic country in more than four decades.
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Mette Frederiksen said the Covid-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine had made her back the idea because the government and the opposition have worked closely together, according to an interview in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. Her Social Democrats and the opposition Liberals and Conservatives have traditionally taken turns forming minority governments.
Frederiksen can call general elections at any time but must do so at a minimum every four years, with the deadline for the next vote being one year from now. Political analysts have said she might decide to hold a ballot this year to ride on the wave of success from this month’s victory in a referendum that brought Denmark into the European Union’s military pact.
“It’s not something we have a strong tradition for in Denmark,” Frederiksen was cited as saying by the newspaper. “There have been very, very few attempts, but we are in a very special time.”
Most opinion polls indicate that Frederiksen’s Social Democrats and the parties supporting her hold a small majority. The former prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen of the Liberals, also suggested a grand coalition in the days leading up to the 2019 elections as polls indicated he would lose. Back then, Frederiksen rejected the idea and her main priority is still for her minority government to continue after a general election.
Last time the Social Democrats formed a coalition government with a party from the right-wing bloc was in 1978 and back then the cooperation only lasted a year.
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