The Danes also made history on Wednesday.

In a referendum, according to initial forecasts, a clear majority will vote in favor of participating in the future joint defense and security cooperation of the EU.

At broadcaster DR, the yes camp in the post-election polls was almost 70 percent, at TV2 it was a good 67 percent.

Matthias Wysuwa

Political correspondent for northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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The Danes, like the Swedes and Finns before them, have completed a rapid turning point in their security policy - and just like their neighbors in the north, this happened as a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

While Sweden and Finland have just submitted their application for membership to NATO after decades of military non-alignment, Denmark is a founding member of NATO and has been a member of the European Union since 1973.

But so far the kingdom had been the only country not to take part in the Union's security and defense cooperation thanks to a reservation.

That was the result of a spectacularly failed referendum 30 years ago.


Because this result in Denmark is not only historical, because the kingdom is waiving its reservation.

It is also a rare agreement from the otherwise skeptical Danes to closer cooperation in the EU, after such a thing had previously been rejected in other referendums.

The fear of a loss of political self-determination was easy to create a mood in the country, and the Danes have always followed a very stubborn course - most recently especially in asylum policy.

In a referendum in 2000, the Danes rejected the euro and only in 2015 did they speak out against abandoning the national exceptions in the areas of justice and internal security.

Not the first referendum

The 1992 referendum was particularly dramatic. At that time, the Danes rejected the Maastricht Treaty, which laid the foundation for the EU.

However, since all members had to ratify the treaty, negotiations were renegotiated with the Danes.

The result was so-called opt-outs, the reservations of the Danes in certain policy areas of the Union.

Among them so far: security and defense cooperation.


Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen made it clear shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine that this had to change now.

Putin's brutal attack on Ukraine ushered in a "new era in Europe, a new reality," she said.

The referendum was part of a package she had put together with almost all parties in parliament, including a substantial increase in defense spending in the budget.

In ten years, the NATO spending target of two percent of gross domestic product is to be achieved.

Historic times call for historic decisions, said Social Democrat Frederiksen.

Ukraine war has reshuffled the cards

So far, Danish security policy has been based primarily on NATO – and thus also on America.

However, the Danes take just as little part in EU military missions as in the joint development of security architecture or weapon systems.

That should change now.

With the threat from Russia, but also with the announced change of direction in Germany with the planned investments in defense of 100 billion euros, the common European security and defense policy is gaining in importance.

Almost all parties in Copenhagen campaigned for a yes in the referendum.

There were only a few exceptions, such as the right-wing populist Danish People's Party: they fear that closer cooperation with the EU on defense policy could come at the expense of NATO.

And they warned that Brussels could now send Danish soldiers on foreign missions.

The Danes, however, were obviously not impressed.