King Frederik Asks Troels Lund Poulsen to Form Government After Mette Frederiksen’s Coalition Talks Collapse

King Frederik of Denmark asked centre-right politician Troels Lund Poulsen to try to form a new government after Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen failed to put together a ruling coalition. The announcement was made on Friday night. King Frederik issued a statement requesting that Poulsen lead the negotiations with a view to forming a government without the participation of the Social Democrats and Moderates.

Mette Frederiksen's left-leaning party, the Social Democrats, won the plurality of votes in parliamentary elections in March. The result was their worst electoral showing since 1903.

Frederiksen had tried to form a left-leaning government with the support of Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s centre-right Moderates party. Lars Løkke Rasmussen is the former foreign minister of Denmark. Rasmussen walked out of negotiations on Friday night and threw his weight behind Troels Lund Poulsen.

The attempt to build a government has been the longest in Danish history. Poulsen will have to marshal a coalition of rightwing parties, a fragile process that could take weeks. 1% in the March elections.

The Danish People’s Party pushed for Poulsen under the condition that the new government had the explicit goal of introducing measures that will lead to Muslim net-exodus of Denmark. The king’s statement indicated that the party had made this demand.

Immigration has become a hot topic in Denmark as in other European countries, with even left-leaning parties adopting stricter policies on immigration control.

After a meeting with the king on Friday afternoon, Mette Frederiksen said: “The Danes ... ” Mette Frederiksen is popular for her handling of Donald Trump’s attempt to acquire Greenland. She performed much poorer on domestic issues, such as taxation and immigration.

Danish politics has skewed increasingly right in recent years, with the March elections showing gains for several rightwing parties. Lars Løkke Rasmussen was seen as a kingmaker owing to his position in the middle between Frederiksen and Poulsen, the chair of the centre-right liberal party.

Frederiksen struggled to gather the support of Denmark’s increasingly fragmented parties. If Poulsen fails to pull together a coherent coalition among the rightwing parties, the prime minister could return with a coalition of her own. The king’s request follows the collapse of weeks of talks that have set a record for duration in Danish history.