Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
Parliamentary election in Denmark 2022 - Statistics & Facts
Initially, the parliamentary election in Denmark was scheduled for 2023. However, after the Social Liberal Party in October 2022 threatened to call a vote of non-confidence on the minority Social Democratic Government unless the incumbent Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen called a snap election, an election was announced for November 1, 2022. The main reason behind the threat of a vote of non-confidence was Fredriksen's decision to cull all of the country's mink population in 2020 due to fears of a mutated variant of the coronavirus (COVID-19). At the time of the decision, Denmark had the largest mink population in the world. The ruling was later found to be without a legal mandate, and it was later revealed that the Prime Minister and several of her employees had deleted key messages from their phones.
Moreover, the sabotage of the two Nord Stream pipelines in October 2022 in the Danish and Swedish economic zones highlighted the vulnerability of the country's infrastructure. In light of the crisis, Fredriksen invited the major liberal-conservative parties to join a broad coalition, but this was quickly rejected by these. What is more, the Danish health care system is in crisis with an acute lack of personnel.
Next to the crisis in the health care system, the leaping inflation rates and the energy crisis were the dominating topics ahead of the election. 2022 has seen a surge in prices all over the world, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Moreover, the sabotage of the two Nord Stream pipelines in October 2022 in the Danish and Swedish economic zones highlighted the vulnerability of the country's infrastructure. In light of the crisis, Fredriksen invited the major liberal-conservative parties to join a broad coalition, but this was quickly rejected by these. What is more, the Danish health care system is in crisis with an acute lack of personnel.
Results: who will form a government?
In the election, the incumbent Social Democratic Party managed to increase its share of votes from the previous election, reaching 27.6 percent. This was more than twice as much as the second largest party, the Liberal Party. The two newcomers, the Moderates and the Denmark Democrats, both made a solid election with 9.3 and 8.1 percent of the votes, respectively. With its proportional representation electoral system, each party winning more than two percent of the votes receives roughly the same share of seats in parliament as share of votes. Much of the victory of the Social Democrats is owed to the popularity of Mette Fredriksen, but the poor electoral campaign of the center-right parties also played into their hands. After several weeks of negotiations, a new coalition government was finally formed shortly before Christmas 2022. Next to Mette Fredriksen and the Social Democrats, it consists if the Liberal Party and the newcomer Moderates.Next to the crisis in the health care system, the leaping inflation rates and the energy crisis were the dominating topics ahead of the election. 2022 has seen a surge in prices all over the world, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
High voter turnout and record-high share of female parliamentarians
For a long time, Denmark were lagging behind the other four Nordic countries in terms of women in parliament. However, after the 2022 election, 44 percent of the Danish MPs were women, reaching over 40 percent for the first time in history. The Socialist People's Party and the green The Alternative were the parties with the highest share of women in parliament. Furthermore, voter turnout in Denmark has been one of the highest in the world in recent decades, underlining the high level of trust Danes have in their political system.
