Danish Foreign Minister and Moderates leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Friday he will not negotiate a new government with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen — unless she talks to center-right parties about the formation of the new coalition.
After a near deadlock in Denmark’s March 24 election, Rasmussen’s centrist party with its 14 seats now holds the balance of power — and is causing trouble for Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, which won the election but need Rasmussen’s support to form a majority government.
Rasmussen’s ultimatum to Frederiksen puts the prime minister — one of Europe’s most powerful center-left politicians — in a tough spot as she attempts to maintain control in Copenhagen.
“We will not take part in further meetings with [Frederiksen] unless she takes that request seriously,” said Rasmussen, as he called for center-right parties to be brought into government talks after two weeks spent negotiating with left-wing parties yielded scant results.
Known as the kingmaker, Rasmussen wants Frederiksen to put the idea of a center-left government “on pause” and sit down with Troels Lund Poulsen, leader of the center-right Venstre party, who ran against her for prime minister after serving as deputy PM in the outgoing coalition government.
Poulsen reached out to Rasmussen on Friday to consider the possibility of finding cooperation on economic policy, which Danish analysts suggest led to his decision to pressure Frederiksen into calling it off with the left-wing “red bloc.”
