Denmark votes in an early election that follows a crisis over US designs on Greenland

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish voters went to the polls Tuesday in a general election, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeking a third term at the helm of the Scandinavian country after a standoff with U.S. President Donald Trump over the future of the kingdom’s semiautonomous territory of Greenland.

More than 4.3 million people are eligible to have their say in the vote for the new Folketing, or parliament, in Copenhagen, which is elected for a four-year term.

Frederiksen called the election in February, several months before she had to in apparent hopes that her resolute image in the crisis over Greenland would help her with voters in the European Union and NATO member country.

In her second term, her support had waned as the cost of living rose — something that, along with pensions and a potential wealth tax, has been a prominent campaign issue.

The 48-year-old center-left Social Democrat is known for strong support of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion and for a restrictive approach to migration — continuing a tradition in Danish politics that now goes back two decades.

Seeking to counter pressure from the right and pointing to a possible surge in migration because of the Iran war, Frederiksen announced proposals this month that include a potential “emergency brake” on asylum and tighter controls on criminals who lack legal residence. Her government had already unveiled a plan to allow the deportation of foreigners who have been sentenced to at least one year in prison for serious crimes.

Two center-right challengers hope to oust Frederiksen as prime minister. One is in her current government — Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen of the Liberal, or Venstre, party, which headed several recent administrations.

The other is Alex Vanopslagh, 34, of the opposition Liberal Alliance, which calls for lower taxes and less bureaucracy, and for Denmark to abandon its refusal to use nuclear power. But a recent admission from Vanopslagh to taking cocaine earlier in his time as party leader may have dented his chances.

Further to the right, the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party looks well-placed to bounce back from a very weak showing at the last election in 2022.

No single party is expected to come anywhere near winning a majority. Denmark’s system of proportional representation typically produces coalition governments, traditionally made up of several parties from either the “red bloc” on the left or the “blue bloc” on the right, after weeks of negotiations.

Frederiksen’s outgoing three-party administration was the first in decades to straddle the political divide. It remains to be seen whether this election will result in a repeat, with the centrist Moderate party of Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen possibly acting as the kingmaker.

Speaking to reporters after he had voted, Rasmussen said that “this is basically about Denmark preparing itself to a world which is absolutely more uncertain than we were used to in the past.”

Greenland, which took up much of the government’s energy in recent months, hasn’t been a significant issue in the campaign because there is broad agreement on its place in the kingdom.

Frederiksen warned in January that an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of NATO. But the crisis has simmered down, at least for now.

After Trump backed down on threats to impose tariffs on Denmark and other European countries that opposed the U.S. taking control of the vast Arctic island, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland started technical talks on an Arctic security deal.

Peter Mortensen, a lawyer, speaking just after he had voted, told The Associated Press that, “I would like some politicians who have a vision for our country."

“What are we supposed to do in this world with war and our neighbors and perhaps our allies are threatening us instead of being allies?” he added. “I don’t have the answers, but the politicians don’t have it either.”

Denmark’s single-chamber parliament has 179 seats. Of those, 175 go to lawmakers from Denmark itself and two each for representatives from thinly populated Greenland and the kingdom’s other semiautonomous territory, the Faroe Islands.

Moulson reported from Berlin.

A man casts a ballot at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

A woman holds a ballot at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

People line up to receive their ballots at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

FILE - Denmark's Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of European Union defense ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos, File)

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, center, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, right, and Pia Olsen Dyhr, left, attend the party leader debate Democracy's Evening on DR1 at the Concert Hall, DR City in Copenhagen, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, left, and Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, right, attend the party leader debate Democracy's Evening on DR1 at the Concert Hall, DR City in Copenhagen, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia (AP) — It's been three months since a ceasefire ended bitter border fighting between Cambodia and Thailand, but signs of combat are cut deep in this 11th-century Hindu temple atop a 525-meter (1,722-foot) cliff in the Dangrek Mountains.

The neighboring Southeast Asian countries have been fighting over Preah Vihear temple on and off for decades, and that's putting the ancient holy site in danger.

Built by the same Khmer Empire that constructed Angkor Wat 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest, the temple, which is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008 and is held as an important cultural relic by Cambodians. The empire was Hindu, but gradually converted to Buddhism, the state religion of modern Cambodia.

But after two rounds of major combat last year, much of the structure is damaged and Cambodian officials say that parts of the temple may be in danger of collapse.

Where tourists once admired the weather-beaten structure's elaborate carvings and a magnificent view over the Cambodian plains, there is now stone debris, along with artillery craters and the ashes of burned vegetation.

“The temple has turned quiet, and its beauty looks so sorrowful because of the tragedy,” Hem Sinath, archaeologist and deputy director-general of the National Authority for Preah Vihear, told Associated Press journalists visiting earlier this month.

The site is closed to tourism due to unstable walls and concern about the presence of unexploded ordnance. Areas are roped off and dotted with signs warning of land mines, a hazard Cambodians know well after decades of Civil War that ended in the late 1990.

Conservation staff, groundskeepers and troops remain stationed in and around the temple, from which Thai soldiers can be seen just across the border.

All five of the temple’s notable gateway pavilions were damaged, three almost beyond recognition, according to a damage assessment issued in January by Cambodia’s Culture Ministry. An ancient northern staircase previously restored by a U.S.-funded conservation project sustained severe hits from repeated bombardment.

A statement issued last week by Cambodia’s Culture Ministry said the temple had suffered damage in 142 locations during the fighting in July, and at 420 more during heavier and more sustained combat in December.

“Experts have predicted that during the upcoming rainy season, some structures on the verge of collapsing could finally fall,” Hem Sinath said.

No independent outside evaluations of the damage are available.

Information Minister Neth Pheaktra accused the Thai military of relying on false information to justify incursions and of deliberately damaging the temple.

“Preah Vihear temple belongs to all humankind. It is not an enemy of Thailand,” he wrote.

International law forbids attacks on important historical sites like the temple, but Thailand has argued that Cambodia militarized the complex, voiding its wartime protection, by installing weapons systems, storing ammunition, and using the site as a base for surveillance equipment. This included a construction crane at the site, which the Thai army attacked after claiming it served as part of a military command and control system.

Thai Army spokesperson Maj. Gen. Winthai Suvaree has insisted that Thai forces directed their fire strictly at military targets.

Cambodia denies that its military ever used the temple, with its Culture Ministry writing in a statement that the temple is under civilian control and that any security forces present were there only to protect the cultural heritage site.

Each nation blames the other for starting the fighting that flared in July and December. Cambodia has reported that more than 640,000 people were displaced from border regions during the fighting, and almost 37,000 have yet to return to their homes.

The temple, known as Phra Viharn to Thais, has been at the center of a long-standing boundary dispute since the 1950s. In 1962, the International Court of Justice ruled that the temple and surrounding area of less than five square kilometers (two square miles) belong to Cambodia. The Court reaffirmed this ruling in 2013.

For years, it drew visitors from both sides of the border, with many foreign tourists arriving via Thailand before the border was closed.

Its designation by UNESCO as a Cambodian heritage site in 2008 rubbed salt into Thai wounds, and heightened nationalism stoked by domestic politics in Thailand contributed to sporadic armed conflict at the temple in 2008 and 2011.

Restoring the temple will be a major challenge. Hem Sinath fears that weakened structures could collapse during the rainy season, which normally begins in late May or early June and continues through October.

India, China and the United States have been involved in previous renovation efforts, but funding has been on hold since fighting broke out.

Hem Sinath said that new and urgent projects needed to keep the temple from deteriorating further are being hindered by concerns for safety and security while the ceasefire remains fragile.

“We have a plan; we want to do a repair — the sooner the better, but as you see, it depends on the situation along the border,” he said.

Associated Press writer Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

A Buddhist pagoda located beside Preah Vihear temple is seen damaged after border clashes with Thailand, at Preah Vihear province, Cambodia, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodian Mine Action Center, CMAC, members stand near a temple damaged during border clashes with Thailand, at Preah Vihear province, Cambodia, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Journalists visit the Preah Vihear temple, damaged during border clashes with Thailand, at Preah Vihear province, Cambodia, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

A deminer from the Cambodian Mine Action Center, CMAC, secures an area at Preah Vihear temple's pathway that was damaged during border clashes with Thailand, in Cambodia, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodian police officers walk past a temple damaged during border clashes with Thailand, at Preah Vihear province, Cambodia, Saturday, March 14, 2026, (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)