Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, a social democrat, on Wednesday called early parliamentary elections for November 1, in which the left, currently in power, will face a bloc that unites the right and the far right, RFI and Agerpres reported.

Mette Frederiksen, who has led Denmark’s government since elections in June 2019, bowed to an ultimatum from the union party in parliament, the Social Liberal Party, which threatened to topple the government unless it decides to call an early parliament by Thursday. election.

The threat follows a critical report in June about the government’s culling of millions of minks due to a coronavirus mutation found in farmed animals, sparking a political scandal known as minkgate. “, in particular, the government is accused of slaughtering minks. without legal grounds.

A mink culling campaign was announced by Frederiksen’s government on 4 November 2020, according to a statement released by the Danish government at the time, all mink in Denmark, approximately 15 million, were to be killed by 5 February of the following year.

The scandal over the hasty burial of minks in mass graves erupted just a month after the culling campaign began, when authorities in Copenhagen announced they were exhuming 4 million of the slain animals over fears the decomposing process could contaminate drinking water or bathing areas. .

The minks were buried in mass graves on the military site, after their exhumation they were cremated.

What opinion polls show about the elections in Denmark

The latest polls predict tough electoral competition.

Thus, the “red bloc”, consisting of several left-wing parties and led by the Social Democrats, receives 47-50% of the vote, compared to 49-50% for the “blue bloc” of which they are a part. part of the liberal, conservative parties and three formations of the nationalist right.

The votes of parliamentarians from the autonomous territories of Greenland and the Faroe Islands could tip the scales in favor of one of these blocs in the next parliament.

In a statement in which he announced the expected, Frederiksen argued that their organization before the deadline is “strange” in the context of the current international crisis, namely “an energy crisis, an economic crisis and a security crisis”.

She promised that if she won the election, her party would try to form a government with the support of a large majority, as the current government was a minority with only a quarter of the seats in parliament.

Last month, Frederiksen’s government lifted a ban on mink farming in the country. Denmark was the world’s largest exporter of mink fur before the decision to cull the entire population due to concerns about the coronavirus.