By Stine Jacobsen and Tim Barsoe
COPENHAGEN/NUUK, March 24 (Reuters) – Denmark’s left-wing bloc led by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen appeared ahead of right-wing parties in Tuesday’s election but exit polls showed she was falling short of a parliamentary majority amid a backlash over the cost of living crisis.
In power since 2019, Frederiksen has benefited in recent months from her tough stance against U.S. President Donald Trump over Greenland, but many Danes have grown weary of her focus on international affairs and accused her of neglecting domestic woes.
A poll from broadcaster DR and Epinion gave the left-wing bloc 83 seats against 79 for the right in the 179-seat assembly, the Folketing, while a TV2 and Megafon survey predicted 86 seats for the left and 75 for the right.
Partial results are expected later in the evening.
If official results confirm the outcome, Frederiksen may struggle to form a cabinet.
She may have to rely on deputies further to the right on the political spectrum or even on a handful of lawmakers from Greenland or the Faroe Islands, both semi-autonomous Danish territories.
This could give Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen’s non-aligned centrist Moderates the power to decide whether Frederiksen’s left-wing bloc or its right-wing opponents form the next government.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, Louise Rasmussen, Soren Jeppesen, Ilze Filks, Tom Little and Leonhard Foeger in Copenhagen, Tim Barsoe in Nuuk and Oliver Barth in Graested; writing by Justyna Pawlak, editing by Terje Solsvik and Alex Richardson)
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