Socialdemokratiet (Social Democrats) has just completed the worst election to the EU Parliament in the party’s history. With all votes counted, the result shows that the party obtained 15.6 percent of the votes. This is a marginal decrease from the party’s previous low point in 1994, when they received 15.8 percent of the votes. In the EU parliamentary election in 2024, which marked the tenth time Danish voters could vote in an EU election since 1979, Socialdemokratiet managed to maintain its three seats in Brussels—a goal that the party had set in advance. The party’s best result ever was achieved in 2004, when a whopping 32.6 percent of voters supported them, with the former Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen as their lead candidate.
In a post on Instagram shortly after midnight, Prime Minister and party leader Mette Frederiksen expressed her disappointment at the decrease in the vote percentage, even though the party managed to keep their seats. “Although we have experienced greater setbacks before, it is a lot this time, and it is really annoying,” she wrote in a down-to-earth manner. The party’s lead candidate for the EU election, Christel Schaldemose, also voiced her dissatisfaction with the result at the Socialdemokratiets election party. “I had hoped and fought for more people to vote for the Social Democrats, of course. I actually don’t think our result tonight is good enough, but we still have three seats,” said Schaldemose, before leaving the party without giving further interviews.
The three seats in the European Parliament will likely be filled by the current members: Christel Schaldemose, Niels Fuglsang, and Marianne Vind.