Social Democrats win Danish EU vote: final results

(COPENHAGEN) - Denmark's opposition Social Democrats came out on top in European Parliament elections Sunday with four of the country's 13 seats, but saw its support decline from 2004, final results showed.

The Social Democrats lost one seat and saw their support drop by 11.1 points to 21.5 percent, a decline analysts attributed to a lack of top names standing in the election.

Denmark's governing Liberal party held on to its three seats, winning 20.2 percent of votes, up by 0.8 points, while its junior coalition partner the Conservatives maintained their sole seat with 12.7 percent, up by 1.4 points.

The far-right Danish People's Party, which supports the minority coalition in the Danish parliament, won two seats, one more than in 2004, and 15.3 percent of votes, a sharp increase of 8.5 points.

The opposition Socialist People's Party doubled its mandate to two seats with 15.9 percent of votes, while eurosceptic party The People's Movement Against the EU held on to its one seat at 7.2 percent.

The European election results do not take into account the outcome of the vote in Denmark's territories Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which have yet to be counted due to the time change there.

Denmark also held a referendum on Sunday in which Danes voted in favour of a change to royal succession laws to allow the monarch's first-born child to take the throne regardless of gender.

The country's constitution currently states that even when the eldest royal child is female, her younger brother still inherits the crown.

A total of 85.4 percent of those who cast ballots voted 'yes' to the proposal, while 14.6 percent opposed it.

Turnout in Sunday's vote was 58.7 percent, higher than the 47.9 percent in the 2004 vote and boosted by the referendum on royal succession, analysts said.