By Tom Little and Stine Jacobsen
Copenhagen: Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was assaulted by a man on a square in the capital of Copenhagen on Friday, her office said.
Copenhagen police confirmed that one person had been arrested following the assault and an investigation had been launched.
The prime minister was said to be “shocked”, but a witness said she was able to walk away and had no outward signs of harm.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.Credit: AP
“Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was beaten on Friday evening at Kultorvet in Copenhagen by a man who was subsequently arrested. The prime minister is shocked by the incident,” her office said in a statement, without giving further detail.
Denmark’s national security and intelligence service confirmed the incident but declined to provide more detail.
“She seemed a little stressed,” Soren Kjergaard, who works as a barista on the square, told Reuters after seeing the leader being escorted away by security following the assault.
Two women who witness the incident told Danish media outlet BT that a tall young man walked towards the prime minister and gave her “a hard push on the shoulder, so she fell to the side”. They said it didn’t appear to be a mere accident: “No, not at all. It was a strong push, but she didn’t hit the ground.”
Frederiksen has recently been campaigning with her party ahead of the European Parliament elections this weekend. The elections have been dominated by a rise of the far-right.
Since the last EU election in 2019, populist, far-right and extremist parties have taken over governments in three EU nations, are part of governing coalitions in several others, and appear to have surging public support across the Continent. Far-right parties in France, Belgium, Austria and Italy are frontrunners in the EU elections.
News of the assault was received with shock and condemnation by politicians across the political spectrum inside the small Scandinavian country and abroad.
Danish Minister of Environment Magnus Heunicke said on X: “Mette is naturally shocked by the attack. I must say that it shakes all of us who are close to her.”
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said “an attack on a democratically elected leader is also an attack on our democracy,” while Charles Michel, president of the European Council, condemned on X what he called a “cowardly act of aggression”.
Violence against politicians has become a theme in the run-up to the EU elections. In May, a candidate from Germany’s centre-Left Social Democrats was beaten and seriously injured while campaigning for a seat in the European Parliament.
In Slovakia, the election campaign was overshadowed by an attempt to assassinate populist Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15, sending shockwaves through the nation of 5.4 million and reverberating throughout Europe.
Reuters, AP
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