The Social Democrats hold on in Denmark

to midnight it looked like a bad day for Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s prime minister. For months polls had shown growing restlessness among the 6m Danes, a general drift to the right and, with no fewer than 14 parties contesting the elections on November 1st, the prospect of protracted haggling to form a new governing coalition. But as final returns trickled in, the mood among her Social Democrats () turned triumphant. Not only had Ms Frederiksen boosted her party’s share of votes (by a modest 1.6 points, to 27.5%), increasing its dominance of the cluster of left-leaning parties commonly known as the red bloc. The rival, right-leaning blue bloc had fragmented, as voters abandoned its traditional liberal and conservative factions in favour of upstart new parties.