- Denmark has elected its first female prime minister, ousting the right-wing government from power after 10 years of pro-market reforms and ever-stricter controls on immigration.
- Near complete official results showed on Thursday that a left-leaning bloc led by Social Democrat Helle Thorning-Schmidt would gain a narrow majority in the 179-seat Parliament.
- Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen conceded defeat, saying he would present his Cabinet's resignation Friday to Queen Margrethe, Denmark's figurehead monarch.
- The result means the country of 5.5 million residents will get a new government that could roll back some of the austerity measures introduced by Loekke Rasmussen amid Europe's debt crisis.
- A majority for the "red bloc" also deprives the anti-immigration Danish People's Party of the kingmaker role it has used to tighten Denmark's borders and stem the flow of asylum-seekers.
- The opposition won 89 of the mainland seats compared to 86 for the governing coalition, according to preliminary results with 100 per cent of votes counted. The "red bloc" was expected to win at least two of the four seats allocated to the semiautonomous territories of Greenland and the Faeroe Islands.
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