Amid tensions with the US over Greenland, Denmark announces early parliamentary elections

2026-02-26 19:09:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Amid tensions with the US over Greenland, Denmark announces early parliamentary

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced today that snap parliamentary elections will be held on March 24. In the elections, which come amid tensions with Washington over Greenland, voters will determine who will sit in the Danish parliament, the Folketing, and elect its 179 lawmakers.

The majority of the seats in parliament, specifically 175, are reserved for MPs representing Danish constituencies, while the remaining four are divided between legislators from the two autonomous territories of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

"It is now up to you, the voters, to decide what direction Denmark will take over the next four years. And I can't wait to see that," Frederiksen said as she announced the election to lawmakers.

General elections must be held in Denmark at least every four years, but the incumbent prime minister can call them at any time. The last elections held in the NATO and EU member state were held in November 2022, resulting in a three-party coalition, bridging the left-right divide.

Frederiksen, a center-left Social Democrat, has led the country since mid-2019. She currently heads a government with the Liberal Party, led by current Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, and the center-right Moderate Party, led by Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who previously held the post of prime minister.

A major challenge for Frederiksen's government over the past year has been dealing with US President Donald Trump's desire to buy Greenland, which culminated in his threat last month to impose new tariffs on Copenhagen and several other EU countries.

Trump had argued that Washington should buy the North Atlantic island for what he called national security reasons, as Russia and China pose a serious threat to Greenland and the Arctic region, raising concerns in the White House. The dispute ended after Trump announced that a framework agreement had been reached to strengthen security in the Arctic, following talks with NATO chief Mark Rutte on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

After that, U.S., Danish and Greenlandic officials began technical talks on implementing the agreement. Frederiksen and other prominent Danish officials have repeatedly said that the country's sovereignty is non-negotiable. At the Munich Security Conference earlier in February, Frederiksen said she did not believe the crisis was over, noting that she thinks Washington still wants to annex Greenland. /CNA