Neutral Dane Selected to Lead Coalition Talks

COPENHAGEN — Queen Margrethe II turned the struggle to form a new Danish government into a battle royal on Wednesday when she named a neutral politician to lead coalition negotiations.

Her unexpected choice of Svend Jakobsen, Parliament’s chairman since 1981, upset Prime Minister Poul Schlueter’s hopes to quickly reassemble his coalition of four center-right parties after parliamentary elections on Tuesday.

Normally, the chief negotiator is the person most likely to become prime minister. However, Jakobsen, 53, has said he does not want the post.

Schlueter gambled on an early election after failing to stop a resolution in Parliament last month that tightened enforcement of Denmark’s peacetime ban on nuclear weapons, a measure seen as a threat to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

U.S. Opposed

Britain and the United States say the resolution undermines their standing refusal to confirm or deny the presence of nuclear arms on military vessels.

Analysts said elections Tuesday for the 179-member Folketing (Parliament) showed a modest shift to the right and strengthened the parties giving the Atlantic Alliance unqualified support.

But the inconclusive results left the political field open to both the government and the Socialist opposition bloc to woo the Social-Liberal party, which holds the balance of power.