Denmark's Prime Minister calls snap election

On 1 November Denmark s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has called a general election.

The outcome of the vote is too close to call, according to recent opinion polls.

The prime minister said in a speech on Wednesday that he wanted a broad government with parties on both sides of the political centre line.

Frederiksen, 44, became Denmark's youngest prime minister in 2019 after promising to improve welfare services that had been eroded by liberal economic reforms since the beginning of the century. Recent opinion polls show a near dead-heat between the Social Democratic minority government in Frederiksen and the left-wing parties supporting it, and a right-wing bloc led by either the Conservative or the Liberal Party.

Many political analysts had predicted that Frederiksen would make an announcement on Wednesday to preempt a vote of no confidence in her administration by one of her allies. Two pipelines carrying gas from Russia to Europe via the Baltic Sea last week suffered damage in what world leaders called an act of sabotage, which is now the focal point of a global political crisis.