Denmark’s first coalition between left and rightwing parties since the 1970s will cut a public holiday to boost defence spending, increase the country’s climate ambitions and reduce taxes for most high earners in a historic agreement.
Social Democrat prime minister Mette Frederiksen will carry on in the job but, for the first time since an ill-fated coalition in 1978, her centre-left party will share power with their centre-right arch-rivals the Liberals, as well as new centrist party, the Moderates, led by her predecessor as premier, Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
Frederiksen was forced to call early elections because of her botched handling of a cull of all of Denmark’s 17mn minks, but sought to regain the initiative by proposing a centrist coalition to address the war in Ukraine and the twin energy and cost of living crises.