View overview: Social Democrats lose strongholds - century-old rule broken in multiple places

Social Democrats suffer a voter backlash across large parts of the country and lose several mayor positions.

It is clear, after votes across the entire country have been counted.

- We had expected to retreat, but it seems that the retreat is larger than we had expected, said the party's leader and prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, just before midnight.

- It is ultimately my responsibility as leader.

The party also loses the position as the largest mayor party, which is taken over by the Liberals.

On a national level, Social Democrats received 23.2% of the votes, which is a decrease of 5.2 percentage points compared to the last municipal election.

Here we zoom in on the municipalities that have particularly hurt Social Democrats by losing.

- It went as expected, and there is not really anything to do about it, said the mayor candidate for Social Democrats in Frederikshavn, Anders Brandt Sørensen, about the result. (Photo: © Bo Amstrup, Ritzau Scanpix)

There may have been many deep sighs in the Social Democratic offices in the night, but some of the first sounded before midnight, when it became clear ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/kommunalvalg/socialdemokratiet-faar-taesk-i-frederikshavn ) that the party had lost a staggering 31.3 percentage points in Frederikshavn Municipality. A municipality that at the 2021 election gave S a brilliant result.

At that time, the Social Democratic mayor Birgit S. Hansen won with a whopping 42% of the votes in the entire municipality. Such a result does not seem likely this time around.

Instead, the Liberals received over 30% of the votes, and the Liberal Jon Andersen is the new mayor in the municipality.

Marie Stærke has been mayor of Køge for several terms. (Photo: © Claus Bech, Ritzau Scanpix)

Since 1921, Social Democrats have been in power in Køge only interrupted by a single conservative period. Therefore, it also hurt particularly when it became clear in the night that the party had lost 13.2 percentage points in the municipality.

A result that was enough to make the party's mayor in Køge, Marie Stærke, resign ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/kommunalvalg/noget-af-en-kaeberasler-marie-staerke-erkender-nederlag-efter-otte-aar-som-borgmester-i-koege ).

- There is no doubt that Social Democrats in Køge have received something of a kick in the teeth, said Stærke, who did not see the result as a specific expression of her leadership in Køge.

- We can see that it is all over Denmark that Social Democrats are bleeding. It has been a hard election for Social Democrats, she said.

Marie Stærke is also deputy leader of Social Democrats.

Instead, the Liberal Ken Kristensen becomes the new mayor in the municipality.

A picture of the power shift. The outgoing mayor of Holstebro Municipality H.C. Østerby talks to the new mayor Kenneth Tønning during the election night. (Photo: © Astrid Dalum, Ritzau Scanpix)

After 15 years with a Social Democratic mayor, the Liberal Kenneth Tønning is this time running with the golden chains.

This happens after the current Social Democratic mayor and landslide winner, H.C. Østerby, chose not to stand for re-election. The party lost 17.9 percentage points and is therefore overtaken by the Liberals as the largest party.

For many years, Social Democrats have been a landslide winner in Randers Municipality. But this year, the party is also losing ground, where it goes back 11.1 percentage points.

It also costs the mayor's position.

Instead, Rosa Lykke Yde from the Red-Green Alliance becomes the new mayor.

Three different Social Democrats have held the mayor's position in Fredericia for the past 12 years, but now it is over. With the current mayor Christian Bro in charge, Social Democrats lost 13.5 percentage points, and the way was paved for a power shift.

New mayor is the Liberal Peder Tind, who has a diverse group consisting of the Red-Green Alliance, the Socialists, the Danish People's Party, the Denmark Democrats and the Liberal Alliance behind him.

One of the Social Democrats' truly big mayor profiles has fallen in Hillerød. Kirsten Jensen was elected as the municipality's mayor for the first time in 2007. She sat on the position until 2013, when the Conservatives knocked her off the pedestal.

But at the election in 2017, Kirsten Jensen made a comeback and has been in the position ever since. But now it is again overthrown by the Conservatives.

New mayor in Hillerød is the Conservative Christoffer Lorenzen.

106 years of social democratic rule in Næstved are over. The current mayor Carsten Rasmussen managed to make Social Democrats the clearly largest party with 31.1% of the votes.

But it was a decrease of 8.1 percentage points, and it meant that the Liberals, Conservatives, Liberal Alliance, Danish People's Party and Denmark Democrats just managed to gather a majority. New mayor becomes the Liberal Kenneth Sørensen, a 47-year-old dentist, who has been the Liberal group leader in the council.

Yet another of the truly, truly big Social Democratic strongholds has fallen. After more than 100 years of social democratic rule in the Copenhagen suburb municipality, SF must now lead Gladsaxe. New mayor is Serdal Benli, who has all parties in the council except Social Democrats and the Danish People's Party behind him.

The current Social Democratic mayor Trine Græse follows the coup.

- I don't think I deserve this, and I think especially not that Gladsaxe deserves it. It is of course not nice to discover that one cannot trust people one has had a close and trusting cooperation with, said Trine Græse.

For the first time since the regions were established in 2007, Region Midtjylland will no longer be led by a Social Democrat.

Anders Kühnau, who has been the region's leader since 2018, must hand over the position to the Liberal Anders G. Christensen.

Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.