Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who has led minority government since 2011 and wants to raise welfare spending, seeks endorsement and will not resign

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Denmark’s Social Democratic prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has announced that parliamentary elections will be held on 18 June.

She said the minority government, whose term ends in September, would not resign before the election, but that it was time for voters to have their say on its policies.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt defies 'curse of Kinnock' to become Danish PM Read more

“It’s the right time to ask Danes whether we should keep the course or if we want experiments by [the opposition],” Thorning-Schmidt told a news conference on Wednesday.

The opposition centre-right bloc, led by former prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, has a four-percentage-point lead in recent opinion polls. However, Thorning-Schmidt is ahead of Rasmussen in other polls when it comes to credibility.

A major point of disagreement between the blocs is public spending. Thorning-Schmidt, who points to 18 months of economic growth, has promised to raise welfare spending, while the opposition maintains that improvements can be achieved without expanding the public sector.

On Tuesday, the government raised its economic growth forecast for 2015 to 1.7% from a previous estimate of 1.4%, and maintained a two per cent growth estimate for next year.

Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark’s first female prime minister, is married to British Labour party MP Stephen Kinnock and has been in office since the previous election in 2011. Her minority coalition has been able to govern with the support of its former coalition member, the Social People’s party, and another small left-leaning group.

Rasmussen, whose popularity with voters was hit by a string of spending scandals, was prime minister from 2009 to 2011. He replaced Anders Fogh Rasmussen (no relation) when the latter was appointed secretary general of Nato.

The right-wing bloc would need the support of the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party (DPP) to pass legislation in parliament.

Support for the DPP has been bolstered by rising numbers of asylum-seekers from Syria – even though they remain relatively low compared to neighbouring Sweden and Germany – and fears that cheap labour from eastern Europe could undermine the Danish model of collective wage bargaining.