Speaking to right-wing newspaper Jyllands-Posten on June 5, Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, invited right-of-center parties to join a coalition government spanning the left-right divide. “It’s only possible to lead a country if you can unify a country,” Frederiksen declared, calling for all parties to set aside their own platforms for the “good of the country.” The move is intended to isolate and marginalize the left-wing Red-Green Alliance, on whose parliamentary support Frederiksen’s Social Democrats currently rely.

The prime minister’s call may seem like a radical step. Indeed, it breaks with a long-standing political settlement in which a left-of-center and a right-of-center bloc take turns governing Denmark. This instead marks a new era of united ruling-class governance, in which an emboldened right-leaning Social Democratic government seeks to consolidate and extend its power.

Faced with such a nadir in relations between the ruling party and the Left, socialists have to grapple with its causes and its likely fallout. Yet it should also be recognized that this moment continues a long history of anti-socialist policies by the Social Democrats — especially when faced with a more radical opposition.