Copenhagen - Danish opposition leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen's right-wing bloc emerged victorious in the country's general election but his Venstre party suffered a crushing blow, losing a quarter of its seats in parliament.
"The coming days will determine whether it will be possible to build a majority for a (government) platform that will lead Denmark down the right path," Rasmussen told cheering supporters after the election results came in.
Rasmussen, 51, is a seasoned political operator with over 20 years in parliament. His jovial charm has often gone down better with voters than the more formal approach of his adversary, outgoing Social Democratic Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
But expenses scandals and an improving economy appear to have damaged his Venstre party, which garnered 19.5 percent of votes amid surging anti-immigration sentiment in the Scandinavian country.
The far-right Danish People's Party (DPP) won a record 21 percent of votes on Thursday and superseded Venstre as the country's biggest right-wing formation.
However, it was not yet clear whether the DPP would choose to enter government, or prefer to influence its policy by providing informal support in parliament.
Rasmussen became Denmark's youngest prime minister in 2009 when then-leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen (no relation) stepped down to become NATO Secretary General.
But he lost the 2011 election when voters rejected his government's austerity policies.
Despite the defeat, which ended a decade of conservative rule, Rasmussen held on to the party leadership and has since survived a series of relatively minor expenses scandals, which nonetheless hit his popularity ratings.
"Of course Danes see him as problematic, but on the other hand they see him as a really professional politician," Peter Nedergaard, political science professor at the University of Copenhagen, told AFP.
AFP
