Danish voters cared more about pigs than invasion threats

This article appeared as part of the Daily Sensemaker newsletter – one story a day to make sense of the world. To receive it in your inbox, featuring content exclusive to the newsletter, sign up for free here.

There was much talk of the Donald Trump effect after Mark Carney won last year’s Canadian election by standing up to the president. But Denmark shows the limits of that approach. Mette Frederiksen, the country’s prime minister, failed to secure a majority on Tuesday in the poorest results for the Social Democrats in 123 years. Despite earning praise when Trump was threatening to invade Greenland, Frederiksen underperformed at the polls due to unhappiness about a potential wealth tax and a surfeit of pigs blamed for possibly contaminating drinking water. Although she resigned on Wednesday, a formality because the Social Democrats did not get a majority, her party received the highest proportion of the vote among the 12 options on the ballot paper. This gives Frederiksen the first go at forming a coalition. She is yet to succeed.