Bid to form centre-right minority government in Denmark after weeks of stalemate – Europe live | World news

Nordic correspondent

Briefly going back to Denmark, pipe-smoking kingmaker Rasmussen is not convinced by the proposed minority government (10:55, 11:47).

In his first public reaction, he appeared unimpressed by the proposal, accusing Lund Poulsen of giving up on attempts to form a government when he still has four days remaining.

“I consider it a test balloon, and of course it can’t fly,” he said.

Meanwhile, we are getting a line from Estonia that Nato’s Baltic Air Policing fighter jets shot down a drone that appeared in the Estonian airspace.

The drone was shot down over Lake Vörtsjärv in southern Estonia.

Estonia’s defence minister Hanno Pevkur confirmed the news to the Estonian news website Delfi and the public broadcaster, ERR.

He said it was most likely a Ukrainian drone aimed at targets in north western Russia – with hits reported in the area this morning – that had its systems jammed and strayed into the wrong direction.

This theory was also separately confirmed by the chair of the foreign affairs committee in the Estonian parliament, Marko Mihkelson.

Estonian prime minister Kristen Michal was reported to have confirmed the news to the Estonian parliament, saying that the shooting down shows that “I guess we can still handle things.”

No civilian casualties or damage was reported.

Around midday local time, both Estonia and Latvia issued drone alerts for parts of its territory.

Latvia again reiterated its alerts in the last few minutes, with train and language exams reported as disrupted as a result of the warning.

Worth remembering that several Baltic and Nordic Nato member states reported stray drone incursions in recent months as the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine continues, with the Latvian government collapsing last week over its response to one of these incidents.

Nordic correspondent

Troels Lund Poulsen, the leader of the centre-right Danish Liberal Party (Venstre), has shocked the political establishment with a surprise announcement in which he said he wants to form a right-leaning minority government.

The proposed coalition consists of his own party, the right-leaning Liberal Alliance and Conservatives would only have 44 seats and would work on a case-by-case basis, he said.

The plan would require the support of the Moderates leader and “kingmaker” Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who has refrained from sharing his opinions on it publicly so far.

Lund Poulsen invited the Moderates and three other parties – the far-right Danish People’s Party and Danish Democrats and the centrist Danish Social Liberal party – to take part in talks, but not the Social Democrats, Denmark’s biggest party. Social Democrat leader and acting prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, failed to form a government after being given the first attempt in the first round of talks.

Lund Poulsen said it “looks extremely difficult” for his party to enter into government with the Social Democrats, but that he did not want to make a final decision on it yet.

The proposed government would, he said, lower taxes, increase wealth, bring in deportation reform and continue rearming the armed forces.

His announcement comes a record eight weeks after Denmark went to the polls in an apparent attempt to capitalise on fears over closed door talks between the US and Greenland about increasing US presence on the Arctic territory after his repeated threats to invade it and the presence of Trump’s special envoy for Greenland, Jeff Landry, in Nuuk.

Landry is there with an American doctor who has said he is there to “assess the medical needs” of Greenland and the US ambassador to Denmark, Kenneth Howery.

Since Denmark’s outgoing foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen will play a defining role in deciding it Poulsen’s ambitious arrangement could even work, let’s bring you his profile by our Nordic correspondent, Miranda Bryant.

If you need any further encouragement, just check the amazing title of his profile:

Yes, it’s worth your time.

Back to Denmark, Troels Lund Poulsen says he will try to form a minority government formed by Venstre, the Conservative party and the Liberal Alliance (or a “VLAK” government).

Speaking from a hotel in Copenhagen, Poulsen lamented that the government formation talks are taking too long, and insisted that further talks “should not drag on unnecessarily,” as the government has lots of things it needs to get on with.

But the proposed administration would be miles away from a majority in the new parliament.

By the sound of his comments, Poulsen is betting on there not being a negative majority that would be prepared to bring it down, as he hopes to present a government programme that could be partially acceptable to some of the parties formally not entering the arrangement.

For example, he argued that there was a clear support for reformist economic policy looking to lower taxes and duties and help businesses, strengthening the country’s military, and tightening immigration and deportation laws.

It is a political framework that a majority in Folketing should not oppose; at least if it is about the policy, and not about individuals.

For what it’s worth, the leader of the far-right Danish People’s party, Morten Messerschmidt, has just declared publicly he’s fine with this arrangement.

Let’s see what Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s centre-right Moderates say about it.

Meanwhile, over in Spain, the country’s High Court said that the former Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is being investigated for alleged influence peddling and related crimes, Reuters reported.

Zapatero’s office in Madrid was being searched alongside three other premises, the court said in a statement, adding the former premier had been summoned to testify on 2 June.

The investigation is part of the so-called Plus Ultra case, linked to a state rescue worth €53m in 2021 of the domestic airline Plus Ultra through state holding company SEPI during the Covid-19 pandemic, Reuters said.

The bailout became politically controversial because critics said Plus Ultra was not clearly strategic, had weak finances and links to Venezuelan shareholders. The High Court is examining whether the aid was properly approved.

Reuters notes that Zapatero is a key ally of current Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez and the case piles more pressure on Sanchez, who is already dogged by a corruption investigation into alleged kickbacks involving key members of his inner circle, as well as probes involving his wife and his brother.

Zapatero led Spain between 2004 and 2011, winning two absolute parliamentary majorities. AFP notes that this is the first time that a former Spanish prime minister has been placed under formal investigation since the country returned to democracy following the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

It also looks like we are going to get an update on the Danish government formation process this morning, with the current “investigator”, Troels Lund Poulsen, hosting a press conference in the next half hour.

I will let you know if we hear something new.

I am also keeping an eye on Greenland, where the US envoy, Jeff Landry, is planning on attending a conference on the future of the territory today.

For all the attention on his visit, so far the only scene that cut through involves him walking around and promising “chocolate chip cookies” to deeply unimpressed Greenlandic children, who also outright rejected his suggestion they take a picture together. The clips went viral globally since.

Ouch.

Or, as Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies somewhat poetically said, “it’s a bit difficult to become good friends with someone you have kicked in the balls first.”

Greenlandic prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and foreign minister Múte B. Egede will speak at the conference later today.

The UN security council is meeting to discuss the situation in Ukraine today in response to recent brutal Russian attacks on the country and joint nuclear weapons drills starting in Russia and Belarus.

The meeting – called by Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, Liberia, and the UK – is expected to cover the latest on the “peace and security” situation in Ukraine.

It coincides with three days of nuclear weapons drills involving tens of thousands of troops across Russia and Belarus, AFP noted, and comes just hours before Vladimir Putin is expected in China for a two-day visit.

Not very subtle.

Elsewhere, I will keep an eye on the new Hungarian prime minister Péter Magyar’s first foreign trip as he is expected in Poland today for a two-day visit, the EU negotiators who are finally finalising the implementation of the bloc’s trade deal with the US, and on the meeting of Nato military chiefs in Brussels.

I will bring you all the key lines here.

It’s Tuesday, 19 May 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

Good morning.