COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s prime minister suffered minor whiplash but is otherwise OK after being assaulted by a man in central Copenhagen, his office said in a statement Saturday.
Police confirmed on Friday that “an incident had occurred” with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on social media platform Platform X, and that a 39-year-old man had been arrested.
Frederiksen was taken to hospital shortly afterwards for examination and was not injured but was “shaken by the incident”, her office said, adding that she had cancelled that day’s programme to rest.
The suspects are due to appear at a pre-trial detention hearing at 11am (GMT) on Saturday at the Copenhagen District Court in the Frederiksberg district of the Danish capital.
Details of the incident were unclear, but local media reported that a man forcefully walked towards Frederiksen and shoved her as she was walking past Kurtorvetsplein, one of Copenhagen’s main squares.
Witnesses Anna Loven and Marie Adrienne told the BT newspaper they saw the man walk towards the Prime Minister and “push her hard on the shoulder, shoving her away”. They emphasised that she did not fall.
Another witness, Kasper Jorgensen, told tabloid newspaper Ekstra Bladet that a well-dressed man, believed to be part of Frederiksen’s bodyguard unit, and a police officer took down the attacker.
Politicians in Scandinavia and abroad condemned the attack.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he was shocked to learn what had happened to Frederiksen, whom he called a friend.
“NATO member states stand united in defense of our values, freedom, democracy and the rule of law,” Stoltenberg wrote on social media platform X on Saturday.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christersson said “any attack on democratically elected leaders is also an attack on our democracy,” while Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said he strongly condemned “all forms of violence against the democratically elected leaders of our free society.”
European Council President Charles Michel condemned the attack, calling it a “despicable act of aggression.”
Second right-wing activist stabbed in German city of Mannheim in four dayshttps://t.co/NaR4JYfe2W
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 5, 2024
European Union parliamentary elections are currently taking place in Denmark and the remaining 27 countries and are due to finish on Sunday.
Frederiksen was campaigning alongside the Social Democrats’ EU candidate Christer Schaerdemose, but reports said the attack was not related to the campaign.
Violence against politicians has become a hot topic in the run-up to the EU elections: in May, a candidate for Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats was assaulted and seriously injured while campaigning for a seat in the European Parliament.
In Slovakia, an assassination attempt on populist Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15th cast a shadow over the election campaign, shocked Slovakia’s 5.4 million citizens and sent ripples across Europe.
Frederiksen, 46, is leader of the Social Democrats and has been Denmark’s prime minister since 2019.
She has guided Denmark through the global COVID-19 pandemic and the controversial 2020 decision to exterminate Denmark’s entire captive mink population to minimise the risk of reinfection of the virus by small mammals.
Violence against politicians is rare in Denmark.
On 23 March 2003, two activists threw red paint at then Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen inside parliament and were immediately arrested. That same day, Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller was also doused in paint.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico forgives gunman, blames liberal media and George Soros for stoking hatred against populists https://t.co/KEOIrpO7oz
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 6, 2024
