"Surging Housing Prices and Rightward Shift Spark Backlash: Denmark's Ruling Party Faces Losing Copenhagen Mayoral Seat After 122 Years"

Denmark's Center-Left Ruling Party Struggles in Copenhagen Election
"Poised to Relinquish Control of the Capital After 122 Years"
Impact of Soaring Housing Prices and Tough Immigration Policies

The ruling center-left party in Denmark is projected to lose its hold on the mayoral seat of Copenhagen for the first time in over a century. Analysts attribute this to the party losing support from its working-class base due to surging housing prices and the rising cost of living.

AFP Yonhap News

According to Yonhap News on November 19, "An opinion poll conducted earlier this month shows that the progressive left-wing coalition, including the Socialist People's Party (SF), the Red-Green Alliance, and The Alternative, is expected to secure a majority in the Copenhagen mayoral election on the 18th (local time) without joining forces with the ruling Social Democrats. As a result, the Social Democrats are poised to relinquish control of the capital, which they have held for 122 years."

Yonhap News reports that the Social Democrats, led by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, have nominated former minister Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil, who previously served as Minister of Education and Minister of Housing, as their candidate for mayor of Copenhagen. She is known as a close ally of Prime Minister Frederiksen.

However, Rosenkrantz-Theil has faced criticism from her rivals for the sharp rise in Danish housing prices during her tenure as Minister of Housing from 2020 to 2024. Lise Nytoft Bergmann, Chief Housing Economist at local financial firm Nordea Kredit, told the British daily The Guardian, "The average price of an 80-square-meter apartment in Copenhagen has risen by 20% over the past year and by 29% over the past four years. The steep increase in housing prices has made it much harder for young people, single-person households, and low-income families to find housing in Copenhagen."

Frederiksen's rightward shift has also triggered backlash from progressive voters. Since taking office, Prime Minister Frederiksen has implemented strict immigration policies, becoming the first European leader to require asylum seekers to wait for the results of their applications at offshore facilities outside Europe. She has also reversed restrictions on vehicle access to city centers, leading to criticism that she has retreated from environmental policies. While these moves have been well received in rural areas, they have provoked backlash in Copenhagen, where 20% of residents are immigrants and the majority are progressives.

Prime Minister Frederiksen became Denmark's youngest-ever prime minister at age 41 in 2019. Seven months before her term was set to end in 2022, she began a second term after the left-wing coalition secured a majority in early elections. She is Denmark's second female prime minister and, despite her left-leaning stance, has shown a new style by adopting restrictive immigration policies and other right-leaning positions.

Politico Europe commented, "This Copenhagen election is attracting attention in parallel with the victory of Zohran Mamdani, who became the first Muslim mayor of New York, the largest city in the United States, after progressive left-wing forces embraced bread-and-butter issues." Mamdani previously garnered broad support from young people and working-class residents in New York, who are struggling with the cost of living, by pledging to implement a 'public housing rent freeze' among other key campaign promises.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.