According to DR, the Danish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti) has continued to make progress in opinion polls, reaching its highest level of popular support since 2019, in a new indication of the party's recovery after years of electoral decline.
New surge in the party's popularity
A new poll conducted by Epinion for DR and Altinget shows that 12.21 TP3T voters would vote for the Danish People's Party if elections were held today, a result more than three percentage points higher than the party's performance in the last parliamentary elections. The Danish People's Party is considered a far-right (right-wing populist) party.
This result puts the Danish People's Party at the forefront of the Blue Bloc parties by a clear margin, and makes it the second largest party in parliament in terms of popular support, after the Social Democratic Party (Socialdemokratiet).
The survey was conducted between August 5 and 12, a period that also included the days following the publication of Danish media reports criticizing the meeting between the leader of the Danish People's Party, Morten Messerschmidt, and the leader of a pro-Russian party from Montenegro.
The value of election opinion polls
Opinion polls are an important indicator of voter trends, but they are not election results and cannot be considered a definitive prediction of what will happen on election day. In Denmark specifically, past elections have shown that opinion polls can be very close to the actual election results, although they may differ from the final result by several percentage points for some parties due to margins of error. Nevertheless, polls carry weight and are followed by politicians and parties as an indicator of public support and satisfaction with their performance.
Strictly strict immigration policies are at the forefront of the party's messages.
Peter Kofod, the political spokesman for the Danish People's Party, welcomed the results, saying they reflected an increase in the number of Danes who believe the party is putting forward positions that align with the issues that concern them, in an interview with DR.
In his speech, Kofod focused on the issues of immigration and prices, saying that the party wants to tighten control over immigration. He also pointed to the rising costs of energy and food, considering that politics can take measures to deal with these increases.
The criticism did not stop the party's progress.
The poll came at a time when Morten Messerschmitt faced criticism for appearing with Vladislav Dajković, a right-wing politician from Montenegro known for his anti-NATO stance and support for Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Messersmit had taken Djakovic on a tour of the Christiansborg area, before appearing in a video shaking his hand and saying to him a phrase that meant “go and win”.
Messersmeat later said that he did not know Djakovic's political positions before the meeting and that the meeting was at the request of a mutual friend, and that he would be more careful in the future about the people he accompanies on such occasions.
However, the poll results indicate that the controversy has not yet been reflected in the level of support for the Danish People's Party and its leader.
Messersmit is leading among Blue Bloc voters
The gains were not limited to the party, as the poll also showed a rise in Morten Messerschmitt's popularity among voters who tend to favor the Blue Bloc parties.
20% of these voters prefer Messersmeet to take over as Prime Minister, compared to 18% for the leader of the Venstre party, Troels Lund Poulsen.
When all voters are counted, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen retains first place as the favorite to take over the government, with 22%.
Messersmeet and Trolls Lund Poulsen both get 9% in this comparison among all voters.
But Peter Kofod does not see these figures as meaning that Messerschmitt has become the official Blue Bloc candidate for Prime Minister, according to his interview with DR.
Kofod said it was premature to talk about who would become the “great successor” in three or four years, if the bloc were to win the next election, noting that such talk might be appropriate closer to the election.
The party went from the brink of being ousted from parliament to the forefront.
The Danish People's Party has seen a significant decline in recent years, reaching a point where it was threatened with being ousted from parliament during the 2022 elections.
But current results indicate that the party has clearly managed to reverse its downward trend.
In the parliamentary elections held earlier in 2026, the Danish People's Party received 9.113% of the vote, and has continued to rise in opinion polls ever since. Official election results confirm that the party has indeed made significant gains compared to the previous election.
Where did the new voters come from?
The survey also reveals the sources of part of the Danish People's Party's new growth.
The party attracts voters who previously voted for the Liberal Alliance, the Social Democratic Party, and the Danish Democrats.
But the most notable shift comes from the Citizens' Party (Borgernes Parti) led by Lars Boje Mathiesen, which has experienced significant turmoil since the election, after most of its MPs left the party.
The poll shows that 43% of voters who voted for the Citizens Party in the last election would choose the Danish People's Party today if the election were held again.
Kofod: All voters are welcome
Peter Kofod showed little interest in where the new voters came from, stressing that the Danish People's Party wanted to welcome voters regardless of their previous political backgrounds.
He explained that the party does not consider whether the voter comes from the right or the left, or is a social democrat or a conservative, but considers him welcome if he finds himself in the party's policies, according to DR.
This shift comes at a time when the Citizens Party is facing great difficulty in maintaining its political position.
The party received only 0.7% in the new Epinion poll, a figure far below the 2% threshold usually required to enter the Danish parliament through the proportional representation system.
Three out of four MPs have left the Citizens Party
Since the election, three out of the four MPs who won their seats for the Citizens Party have left the party and become independent members of parliament.
Lars Boe Mathiesen saw the situation as reflecting the volatile nature of politics, arguing that voters may sometimes punish the parties that tried to gain their trust, rather than the politicians who caused the problems.
Mathiesen pointed out that his party had previously faced polls showing support at similar levels, before managing to enter parliament despite the predictions of some experts and the media.
He also criticized what he described as the actions of some candidates who, according to his account, gained the trust of the party and its members during the summer, before leaving the party later.
Mathiesen cited the experience of the Danish People's Party itself, which years ago went through a period of sharp decline in popularity, and at one point its support reached only 2.6%.
Mathiesen concluded his remarks by emphasizing that politics, by its very nature, experiences cycles of ups and downs. (according to DR.).
The latest poll indicates that the Citizens Party, which won enough votes in the 2026 parliamentary elections to enter parliament, is now only at 0.7% in voting intentions, while the Danish People's Party has risen to 12.2%, continuing its upward trajectory and becoming the biggest beneficiary of the decline of its new rival on the right.
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