Løkke Rasmussen advocated a new center-right government throughout the election campaign and arrived at the Moderates' election vigil with a big smile on his face and a pipe in the corner of his mouth.
Neither the blue nor the red bloc can form a majority and he thus holds the decisive mandates with 7.8 percent of the vote. Everything now points to a complicated government formation.
It's not that bad after all, he says during the party's election vigil, according to Danmarks Radio.
In his speech, he recalls that he founded the Moderates to break the bloc politics in Denmark.
We succeeded in that last time, and we will succeed in that today as well.
Criticizes government colleagues
The current Minister of Foreign Affairs also criticizes his government colleagues, Mette Frederiksen (S) and Troels Lund Poulsen (V).
Mette Frederiksen ran towards her red corner flag, he says, referring to the Social Democrats going into the election on a wealth tax.
And the other man, Troels Lund, ran towards the blue-black corner flag. Forget the outside world. Cut back on foreign aid. It's completely crazy.
Lund Poulsen also calls on Løkke:
I think you should choose a blue center-right government, he says, stating that he rules out joining a new center-right government with the Social Democrats.
Historically poor election results
When all votes are counted, Danish media note that both the Social Democrats and the Liberal Party are achieving historically poor election results with 21.7 and 10.1 percent respectively.
The Liberal Party has never had such a poor result, and for the Social Democrats it is their worst result since 1903.
