DANES voted to drop their EU military co-operation opt-out in a referendum yesterday, with the electoral commission reporting today that with most districts counted 66.9 per cent were in favour of the move.

Denmark is a Nato member, but had declined to join EU military co-operaton project Pesco. The organisation co-ordinates EU military actions and – through its Military Mobility project with the United States – aims to build a “strategic platform” for rapid deployment of troops from the US or any EU member state anywhere within the bloc.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was “very, very happy” with the result. 

“We have sent a clear signal to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” she declared, having called for an end to the opt-out in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Red-Green Alliance had campaigned for a No vote, arguing that “EU military co-operation is not about defence. It is about military missions in Africa, often in former French colonies. Missions that drag a bloody trail of scandals, accidents and human rights violations behind them.”

It said the Danish government was exploiting fears caused by the Ukraine war to drive a militarist agenda. 

Communist Party (Denmark) chairman Lotte Rortoft-Madsen said the result showed “fear and insecurity” had won. She called for the left to consider “how opposition to the EU can manifest itself, sink new roots and grow new wings in the years to come.”