Mette Frederiksen of The Danish Social Democrats address the media after finalizing the government negotiations shortly after midnight at Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen, Denmark, early Wednesday June 26, 2019. Frederiksen announced that The Danish Social Democrats will form a minority government backed by three other left-wing parties. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
The Associated Press
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Three left-wing parties in Denmark are backing the center-left Social Democrats to form a one-party minority government.
The 18-page deal would make the Social Democrats' leader, 41-year-old Mette Frederiksen, the country's youngest prime minister after the left-leaning party won the June 5 election.
The Social Democrats won by embracing restrictive immigration policies, a pragmatic tactic that involved returning to the party's anti-migrant roots after two decades of relatively more liberal policies. Denmark's largest party has been in the opposition for the past four years.
Despite differences over welfare and immigration, the left-leaning parties want to back Frederiksen, who is expected to form a government in the next few days. Minority Cabinets are common in Denmark.
The deal came late Tuesday after 21 days of talks with the Social People's Party, the Red Green Unity List and the centrist Social Liberals.
Frederiksen said the deal identified several goals, including promoting integration in Denmark; basing immigration on "common sense;" reversing the previous government's decision not to accept any refugees under a U.N. quota system; fighting plastic pollution; and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70% ahead of 2030.
The U.N. refugee agency has made deals with countries, including Denmark, to take in refugees. Since 1989, Denmark has accepted about 500 such refugees every year.
The four Danish parties also agreed to drop plans to put rejected asylum-seekers and foreigners convicted of crimes on a tiny island that formerly housed facilities for researching contagious animal diseases. They also would reverse some austerity measures in health care and education.
The June 5 elections for Denmark's 179-seat Folketing, or Parliament, dealt a blow to the populist, anti-immigration Danish People's Party, which had been supporting Denmark's center-right prime minister, who resigned. Former Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen failed to keep a majority in parliament after his allies saw their vote share plunge to 8.7% in the June election from 21.1% in 2015.
Leaders of left-wing parties in Denmark say they will back the center-left Social Democrats, with left to right, Pia Olsen Dyhr of the The Socialist People's Party, Pernille Skipper of The Red-Green Alliance, Mette Frederiksen of The Danish Social Democrats and Morten Oestergaard of The Social Liberal Party address the media after finalizing the government negotiations shortly after midnight at Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen, Denmark, early Wednesday June 26, 2019. Frederiksen announced that The Danish Social Democrats will form a minority government backed by three other left-wing parties. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
The Associated Press
Mette Frederiksen of The Danish Social Democrats address the media after finalizing the government negotiations shortly after midnight at Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen, Denmark, early Wednesday June 26, 2019. Frederiksen announced that The Danish Social Democrats will form a minority government backed by three other left-wing parties. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
The Associated Press
Mette Frederiksen of The Danish Social Democrats addresses the media after finalizing the government negotiations shortly after midnight at Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen, Denmark, early Wednesday June 26, 2019. Frederiksen announced that The Danish Social Democrats will form a minority government backed by three other left-wing parties. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
The Associated Press
Mette Frederiksen of The Danish Social Democrats, centre, address the media backed by leaders of left-wing parties after finalizing the government negotiations shortly after midnight at Christiansborg Castle in Copenhagen, Denmark, early Wednesday June 26, 2019. Frederiksen announced that The Danish Social Democrats will form a minority government backed by three other left-wing parties. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
The Associated Press