Following Sunday’s EU election, the ruling parties are faced with a result far below their expectations. According to the leader of the Moderate Party (Moderaterne), Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the voters’ verdict is a clear message to the government to reconsider their political work. During the Moderate Party’s election celebration, Løkke stated that the election result shows that the government must revitalize the project to remain relevant to the voters. The Moderate Party itself performed second worst among the parties, only surpassed by the Alternative Party, which also failed to secure a seat in the EU Parliament.
“The government needs to collectively sit down and think about how we can revitalize our political work, how we can stay relevant,” said Løkke. He also pointed out that the SVM government (SVM-regeringen), in addition to a disappointing EU election result for Venstre and the Social Democrats, has experienced a significant drop in national opinion polls. Løkke believes that some of the votes not only reflect visions for Europe but also the voters’ feelings about current Danish politics. “I am quite convinced that some Danes have voted with their hearts. What do we feel about Danish politics right now?” he said, emphasizing that the government must now renew its will to create change.
According to Løkke, the SVM government must take the election result as a serious warning. “One is a bit naive if one does not take the election result seriously and acknowledges that the government has not done particularly well in this regard. I think we need to take that seriously,” he stated. The Social Democrats’ lead candidate, Christel Schaldemose, also admitted that the result did not meet expectations, even though the party is set to retain its three seats in the EU Parliament. The Social Democrats seem to be losing nearly six percentage points.
“I actually don’t think our result tonight is good enough, but we still have three seats,” Schaldemose said. Venstre is set to gain two seats, which is a significant reduction. The government is thus faced with a significant task of regaining the trust and support of the voters in the future.