Neither the traditional blue nor red blocs won a majority in the election a week ago, nor did the current centrist government that is to be ousted.
In Denmark, the threshold for entering the Folketing is two percent. This has resulted in a number of newly formed and smaller parties, Bechmann Pedersen says.
Already on election night, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) warned that the upcoming government negotiations would be complicated.
Political outcasts
At the same time, parties began to draw red lines. From the blue bloc, Troels Lund Poulsen (V) ruled out joining a new center-right government with the Social Democrats, and Morten Messerschmidt (DF) promised to make life miserable for the election's front-runner Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M).
Now the blue bloc has been further weakened. Just a few days after the election, two newly elected members of parliament were expelled and became political outcasts, a woman from the Liberal Alliance and a man from the Citizens' Party.
It has been shown that they do not have the local support required to be able to "screen" their candidates. This has reinforced the idea of not taking support from fringe parties.
This means that the Blue Bloc, together with the Moderates, no longer has the option to form a majority, which weakens Løkke Rasmussen's position as a balancer because he can no longer threaten to turn right at the negotiating table.
"No one probably believed in that idea beforehand, but now it's completely dead," says Bechmann Pedersen.
Monster government
This does not mean that Frederiksen, who is currently acting prime minister with the task of probing for a new government, is in a dream situation.
She needs support from the center, and to get a majority she requires several parties that are very far apart on certain issues.
One of several options being discussed is a broad center-right government consisting of the Social Democrats, the Moderates, the Liberal Democrats, the Radical Liberals and the Conservatives.
Bechmann Pedersen calls it a monster government, a cabinet so multifaceted that its sheer breadth alone makes it unmanageable. But regardless, he believes it will take time to reach an agreement.
"It must be negotiated in detail if there is not to be an immediate fight when you discover small things you had not thought of at first, but which then turn out to play a big role for individual parties."
