Dansk Folkeparti was the big winner in the European elections yesterday in which it won more than a quarter of the votes and gobbled up an additional two seats in the EU Parliament.
DF’s lead candidate Morten Messerschmidt sealed the historic night by garnering the most personal votes in Danish history with over 400,000 votes.
Venstre, meanwhile, were the big losers on the night, gaining just 16.7 percent of the votes – its worst EU election in 25 years – and losing a seat in parliament.
Embattled party head Lars Løkke Rasmussen admitted that he was to blame for his party’s demise after his involvement in a number of scandals recently, including the GGGI scandal last year, and more recently, the news that Venstre shelled out 152,000 kroner on buying clothes for him.
“They say that the road to hell is paved with bad excuses, so let me tell it how it is,” Rasmussen told his party colleagues. “Venstre didn’t get the election we should have had tonight, and that’s my responsibility.”
Socialdemokraterne and Socialistisk Folkeparti were among the other parties to lose seats in parliament, while Radikale gained one seat.
READ MORE: Venstre gives Lars Løkke one more chance
A resounding 'yes'
In related election news, Denmark sent a clear message to the rest of Europe when over 60 percent voted in favour of the EU patent court referendum.
The result means that Denmark will join the European patent court, which will make it possible to get a patent approved for 24 EU nations via one application, compared to before when patents had to be approved by every individual nation.
But potential European patent reform will not come into effect until at least 13 EU member states, including Germany, France and Britain, have signed on, which probably won’t happen until 2015.
Some 56.3 percent of Danes turned up to vote yesterday, which was a bit less than last time, but higher than the European average of 43.1 percent.
