Incident in Copenhagen: Denmark’s Prime Minister: Sad and shocked

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has addressed the public for the first time after she was physically attacked in Copenhagen. She thanked everyone for the many messages of support. “This is all incredibly touching,” she wrote on Instagram at the weekend. She also posted a heart. She said she was sad and shocked by what had happened, but otherwise fine. She now needs rest and time for herself and her family.

The 46-year-old was beaten by a man in downtown Copenhagen on Friday evening. The police arrested a suspect. The 39-year-old is accused of hitting Frederiksen on the upper arm. The suspect is currently in custody and denied guilt in court.

Suspected perpetrator was probably drunk

Investigators do not currently believe that this was a planned attack with a political motive. The man was probably under the influence of drugs and alcohol, reported the Danish news agency Ritzau. He is a Polish citizen and denied in court that he had anything against Frederiksen. She is a “really good prime minister,” he said, according to Ritzau.

The newspaper “BT” quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Frederiksen fell to the side as a result of the blow, but did not fall to the ground. The politician was subsequently examined in hospital and suffered from mild whiplash, her office said. She canceled her participation in several events on Saturday and was not scheduled to attend any public appointments on Sunday either.

“What a shock. Denmark is not like that.”

Politicians from the government and opposition reacted with horror to the attack and declared their solidarity with the Prime Minister. The conservative Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen wrote on Platform X: “What a shock. Denmark is not like that. We are not attacking our Prime Minister.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) sent X messages wishing him a speedy recovery: “Dear Mette, I wish you a speedy recovery!” French President Emmanuel Macron responded in the same way as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote to Frederiksen: “I condemn this despicable act, which contradicts everything we believe in in Europe and what we fight for. I wish you strength and courage – I know that you have plenty of both.”

Recently, several politicians in Europe have been attacked on the street, including in Germany. In Dresden, the SPD campaigner Matthias Ecke was beaten so badly that he had to be hospitalized, and an AfD local politician in Mannheim was injured with a knife while pursuing an election poster thief. On May 15, the Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico was critically injured by a shot fired by an opponent of the government.

Frederiksen made insults public on the Internet

Just a few weeks ago, Frederiksen called for a debate on interpersonal relationships, albeit on social media at the time. To illustrate her criticism, she published several hate messages that she said she had received herself. Harassment, sexism, insults, hatred and threats are unfortunately part of everyday life for many people, she wrote. She herself has recently received hate messages and threats on a scale that she had never experienced before.