Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called a general election for Nov. 1, seven months ahead of the end of her term in office.
Frederiksen, who has headed a minority government since June 2019, has seen her popularity dwindle due to her role in a pandemic-
related decision to wipe out Denmark’s captive mink population.
The early parliamentary election will select members of the 179-seat Folketing. Polls show the center-left bloc led by her Social Democratic Party is neck-and-neck with the center-right opposition, which includes parties that want to reduce immigration.
“We want a broad government with parties on both sides of the political middle,” Frederiksen said as she announced the election. She admitted that “it is, of course, peculiar to have a general election in the middle of an international crisis.”
In June, a Danish Parliament-appointed commission harshly criticized Frederiksen’s government for its decision to cull millions of healthy mink at the height of the coronavirus pandemic to protect humans from a mutation of the virus.
Frederiksen became Denmark’s youngest prime minister when she took office at age 41.
