Denmark election: Left-wing bloc comes out on top

Denmark's left-wing bloc has secured the most votes in a general election widely seen as a confidence vote in the country's leader.

The leader of the bloc - Prime Minister Metter Frederiksen - will form a new government with the projected support of 90 MPs.

Against predictions, her Social Democrats party gained two seats and secured its best result in two decades.

Ms Frederiksen was forced to call an early election in October.

In the report's findings, the government's order to kill up to 17 million mink in 2020 was found to have no legal basis.

Though Ms Frederiksen was found not to have known that the order was illegal, the report rattled her coalition, with one of the parties within it threatening to withdraw its support for the government if she did not call a general election.

This then took place on 1 November.

As vote counting took place on Tuesday, it was uncertain up until the end whether Ms Frederiksen's left-of-centre "red block" or the right-of-centre "blue block," led by Jakob Ellemann-Jensen's Liberals, would win a majority.

With this in mind, there were also suggestions that if neither group won a majority, the decision as to which would govern would end up in the hands of the recently formed Moderates party - led by two-time former Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

Although the Moderates ended up playing no such role, the party did make significant gains in the election, becoming the third-biggest party in Denmark - a considerable feat, given they did not even exist five months ago.

But it was Ms Frederiksen's "red block" which came out on top, securing 87 seats in mainland Denmark.

They also won one seat in the Faroe Islands and are projected to win two more seats in Greenland - an autonomous Danish dependent territory of Denmark that often elects left-wing candidates. This would secure them 90 seats in the Folketinget and a one-seat majority.

Of the parties within the "red block," Ms Frederiksen's Social Democrats also gained two seats and took more than a quarter of the vote (27.5%), making them by far the biggest party in the Folketinget.

"Social democracy had its best election in over 20 years," Ms Frederiksen said during a speech during her election night party in Copenhagen.

She added that although her red coalition had come out on top, she wished to reach out to the centre to create a broader coalition.

"We are a party for the whole of Denmark," she said.

She said the current government would formally resign on Wednesday in order to start the process of forming a new administration.