By John Acher and Jeremy Gaunt
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's centre-left "Red bloc" was poised to win power on Thursday and oust centre-right Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen in an election driven by voter anger over the state of the economy.
With more than 75 percent of the vote counted, Social Democrat Helle Thorning-Schmidt was on course to become Denmark's next prime minister, the first woman to hold the post.
The centre-right "Blue bloc" has been in power for 10 years, during which Denmark, like other countries, suffered the worst economic downturn since World War II.
Thorning-Schmidt's Red bloc was forecast to have a slim majority in the 179-seat parliament, its size depending on the results from far-flung Greenland and Faroe Islands. Her Social Democratic party would be the largest in parliament with at least 44 seats.
"Everything points to us having a new government," said Margrethe Vestager, head of the centrist Social Liberals, likely to be a key player in the Red coalition.
She said she would urge Rasmussen to step down at a meeting later in the evening.
The state of the economy has been the overriding issue of the campaign, with the governing coalition parties under fire for failing to spur growth.
Thorning-Schmidt has attacked Rasmussen for taking the country deep into deficit.
Her platform includes increased government spending, raising taxes on the wealthy and an unusual plan to make everyone work 12 minutes more per day. An extra hour of productivity each week, her group argues, would help kick-start economic growth.
Rasmussen had appealed to voters to stick with him and, he said, not let the centre-left unravel what has been achieved.
Political scientist Jorgen Elklit said it was clear the Red grouping was winning and that the hard part would now be putting together a government.
"It will certainly take days, maybe weeks to form a government," he said.
ECONOMIC WOE
If the count holds up, Denmark would become the latest in a series of European countries to see incumbents voted out at least in part because of struggling economies.
Spain's Socialist government is facing possible defeat in a November 20 general election and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has lost a series of state elections since May 2010.
Denmark has been spared much of the trauma suffered by other west European countries because it remains outside the euro zone. This means it is not involved in bailing out debt-laden countries like Greece, an issue that has stirred popular anger in neighbouring Germany.
But the economic crisis has turned Denmark's healthy surpluses into deficits, forecast to climb to 4.6 percent of GDP next year.
Danish banks have also been struggling, with small bank Fjordbank Mors falling into the hands of administrators in June, the ninth Danish bank to be taken over by the state since the start of the crisis in 2008.
Thorning-Schmidt's "12-minute" plan -- unusual enough to define her campaign -- would pay workers for the extra time. Denmark has no official work week, however, so the actual hours would be decided on a company-by-company basis.
The likely new prime minister is part of an extended European political family, married to the son of Neil and Glenys Kinnock. Neil was a European commissioner and British Labour Party leader, Glenys a European parliamentary deputy and Europe minister in the last Labour government.
(Additional reporting by Anna Ringstrom, Mette Fraende, Shida Chayesteh, Teis Jensen, Terje Solsvik, Ole Mikkelsen, Jakob Vesterager; Writing by Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
