Saturday, June 8, 2024 -Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was attacked by a man in central Copenhagen, her office has said.
The 46-year-old was “shocked by the
incident” on Friday evening, July 7 in the capital’s Kultorvet square, the
office said in a statement, without providing further details.
“Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was hit
by a man Friday evening on Kultorvet in Copenhagen. The man was subsequently
arrested,” the statement added, according to AFP news agency.
Copenhagen police also said on X that one
person had been arrested and they were investigating the incident, but did not
give details on the suspect’s identity.
The assault came two days before Danes
head to the polls to vote in European Union parliamentary elections, which
conclude across the EU bloc on Sunday.
Frederiksen has been campaigning with the
Social Democrats’ EU lead candidate, Christel Schaldemose.
Two witnesses, Marie Adrian and Anna Ravn,
told newspaper BT that they had seen Frederiksen arrive at the square while
they were sitting by a nearby fountain just before 6pm (16:00 GMT).
“A man came
by in the opposite direction and gave her a hard shove on the shoulder, causing
her to fall to the side,” the newspaper quoted the women as saying.
They added that while it was a “strong
push”, Frederiksen did not hit the ground.
According to the witnesses, the prime
minister then sat down at a nearby cafe. They described the man as tall and
slim, and said he had tried to hurry away but had not gotten far before being
grabbed and pushed to the ground by men in suits.
Another witness, Kasper Jorgensen, told
newspaper Ekstra Bladet that he had seen the man after he was tackled to the
ground, saying that one of what he presumed to be part of the security service
had put a knee on the man’s back.
“They had
pacified him, and as he lay there, he looked confused and a little dazed,”
Jorgensen told the newspaper.
Frederiksen was then escorted away by
security following the assault.
European Council President Charles Michel
said he was “outraged by the assault” while European Parliament President
Roberta Metsola urged Frederiksen to “keep strong” while adding in a post on X
that “violence has no place in politics”.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen
also condemned what she called a “despicable act which goes against everything
we believe and fight for in Europe”, in a statement to social media.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said
that “an attack on a democratically elected leader is also an attack on our
democracy”.
In 2019, Frederiksen became Denmark’s youngest prime minister and kept the post after emerging victorious in the 2022 general election.
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