THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Lord Kinnock's daughter-in-law Helle Thorning-Schmidt is to become Denmark’s first woman prime minister after winning a knife-edge victory in the country’s general election.
As the first votes came in on Thursday night, her centre-left coalition, which was the strong favourite to win, at one point fell behind the government, but pulled ahead by the end of the night to win 89 of the country’s seats next to the 86 seats won by the coalition led by Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
Addressing victorious Social Democratic Party members last night, Ms Thorning-Schidmt, 44, said: “Today is the day things change in Denmark. This evening we’ve shown that the Social Democrats are a big and driving force in Denmark. We’ve written history today.”
Ms Thorning-Schidmt’s victory brings the Danish left back to power after ten years in opposition, and is likely to mean Denmark will be less hostile to moves towards closer economic co-ordination within the European Union. » | Richard Orange in Malmö | Friday, September 16, 2011
