Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt (C) of the Danish Social Democratic Party hands out red roses to potential voter at the grand central station in Copenhagen during general elections on June 18, 2015. (Agence France-Presse)
Copenhagen:
Denmark heads for a nail-biting general election today as opinion polls put the ruling centre-left bloc and the opposition in a dead heat after a remarkable comeback for Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
The three-week election campaign has been dominated by three main subjects: the economy, the future of the country's cherished cradle-to-grave welfare state, and immigration and the rising cost of hosting asylum seekers.
On the eve of the vote, the Social Democratic premier who has been buoyed by an economic recovery, stuck to her strategy of questioning plans by her right-wing rival, Lars Lokke Rasmussen of the Venstre Party, to freeze public spending.
"We can afford to have a ... society where we take care of each other," she said at a press conference.
A weighted average of polls by the daily Berlingske on Wednesday showed the ruling bloc garnering 49.3 per cent of the vote with 50.7 per cent for the opposition coalition, which includes the anti-immigration Danish People's Party (DPP) that is credited with around 18 per cent of voter sympathies.
Most surveys have suggested that around one in five voters are undecided.
Rasmussen, the rightwing leader who headed the government between 2009 and 2011, has accused the premier of negative campaigning and of taking credit for reforms introduced by the former cabinet.
The three-week election campaign has been dominated by three main subjects: the economy, the future of the country's cherished cradle-to-grave welfare state, and immigration and the rising cost of hosting asylum seekers.
On the eve of the vote, the Social Democratic premier who has been buoyed by an economic recovery, stuck to her strategy of questioning plans by her right-wing rival, Lars Lokke Rasmussen of the Venstre Party, to freeze public spending.
"We can afford to have a ... society where we take care of each other," she said at a press conference.
A weighted average of polls by the daily Berlingske on Wednesday showed the ruling bloc garnering 49.3 per cent of the vote with 50.7 per cent for the opposition coalition, which includes the anti-immigration Danish People's Party (DPP) that is credited with around 18 per cent of voter sympathies.
Most surveys have suggested that around one in five voters are undecided.
Rasmussen, the rightwing leader who headed the government between 2009 and 2011, has accused the premier of negative campaigning and of taking credit for reforms introduced by the former cabinet.
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