The Danes overwhelmingly supported their country's entry into the European Union's defense policy, in a "historic" move that came three months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the mounting security concerns it caused in the kingdom.

In a public referendum held on Wednesday, 67% voted "yes" to Denmark's accession to the European defense policy.

The referendum took place in conjunction with the submission of Finland and Sweden formal applications to join NATO, because of the fears generated in them by Russia's invasion of its neighbor.

"This evening, Denmark sent a strong message to our allies in Europe and NATO, and to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. We are showing that when Putin invades a free country and threatens the stability of Europe, we are the rest of us coming together," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.

"There was Europe before February 24, before the Russian invasion, and there is another Europe after it," she added.

Conservative opposition leader Soren Pape said: "Everything indicates that after 30 years, the Danes have decided today that we must scrap the 'no options' we had and work closely with Europe."

Denmark, a member state of the European Union since 1973, recorded the first questioning of European unity in 1992 when it rejected the Maastricht Treaty with a majority of 50.7% of the vote, which had not happened previously.


series of exceptions

In order to remove this obstacle that was threatening the entry into force of the founding treaty in all European Union countries, Copenhagen obtained a series of exceptions called “opt out” (option options) according to European terminology, and the country returned to agree to the treaty in another referendum organized in the following year.

Since then, Denmark has remained outside the eurozone, which it rejected in the 2000 referendum, but also outside the European policy on internal affairs and justice after it rejected it in the 2015 referendum, as well as defense.

Under this last exception, the Scandinavian country, a founding member of NATO, was unable to participate in any EU military mission.

Denmark is the only EU country with "opt-out options", although Malta is de facto outside defense cooperation, having resorted to these exceptions 235 times 29 years ago, according to a survey by the European think-tank.

Two weeks after the invasion of Ukraine, Frederiksen announced an agreement with a majority of parties in Parliament to offer to end these voting exceptions in a referendum, as well as significant military investment to cross the desired 2% of GDP threshold.

Eleven parties out of 14 represented in Parliament called for a "yes" vote in the referendum in which about 4.3 million voters were invited to participate.