Denmark’s prime minister-in-waiting, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, begins the tricky task on Friday of piecing together a centre-left government after an election which ended 10 years of centre-right rule.
Climbing rather than sweeping to victory on Thursday, Thorning-Schmidt led a diverse “Red bloc” of parties that succeeded in tapping voter anger about the state of the economy and ousting Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen. It was the latest in a series of defeats for incumbents in European countries. Rasmussen was to tender his formal resignation later in the day, opening the way for Social Democrat Thorning-Schmidt to try to form a government. She will be Denmark’s first woman prime minister.
“We did it,” she said as supporters chanted “Helle, Helle” in an early hours celebration. “Today is a day of change.”
Her Red bloc won a slim majority of five seats in Denmark’s 179-seat parliament, according to a preliminary tally. Turnout was a high 87.7 percent.
Complicating the task of forming a government is the fact that the two biggest winners of the night were the far-left Red-Green Alliance and the centrist Social Liberals.
Full Article: New Danish leader to forge Red bloc government | Reuters.
