Suspect in connection with attack on Danish Prime Minister must appear in court

A man accused of attacking the Danish prime minister in central Copenhagen will appear for a detention hearing on Saturday, authorities said.

Police confirmed on Friday that there had been “an incident” involving Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and that a 39-year-old man had been arrested. They did not provide further details and it was not clear whether Frederiksen was injured.

The man is expected to appear at Copenhagen District Court in Frederiksberg, a municipality within the Danish capital, at 11:00 GMT.

The Prime Minister’s office told Danish state broadcaster DR on Friday that Frederiksen was “shocked” by the incident.

Two eyewitnesses, Anna Ravn and Marie Adrian, told the daily BT that they saw a man approach Frederiksen and then “push her hard on the shoulder, knocking her to the side.” They stressed that the prime minister did not fall.

Another witness, Kasper Jørgensen, told the tabloid Ekstra Bladet that a well-dressed man who appeared to be part of Frederiksen’s security unit and a police officer arrested the suspected attacker.

Søren Kjærgaard, who worked at a bar on Kultorvet Square where the incident occurred, told BT that he saw Frederiksen after the incident and that she had no visible injuries on her face, but quickly walked away.

Politicians in the Scandinavian country and abroad condemned the reported attack.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he was shocked by the fate of Frederiksen, whom he described as a friend.

“NATO allies stand together to protect our values, freedom, democracy and the rule of law,” Stoltenberg wrote on the social media platform X on Saturday.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said “an attack on a democratically elected politician is also an attack on our democracy.” Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said he strongly condemned “any form of violence against the democratically elected leaders of our free societies.”

Charles Michel, President of the European Council, condemned on X what he called a “cowardly act of aggression”.

Elections to the European Parliament are currently taking place in Denmark and the other 27 member states and will end on Sunday.

Frederiksen is currently campaigning together with the Social Democrats’ EU lead candidate, Christel Schaldemose. According to media reports, the attack was not connected to a campaign event.

Violence against politicians has become an issue in the run-up to the EU elections. In May, a candidate from the German Social Democrats was beaten and seriously injured during the election campaign for a seat in the European Parliament.

In Slovakia, the election campaign was overshadowed by an assassination attempt on populist Prime Minister Robert Fico on 15 May, which sent shockwaves through the country of 5.4 million people that reverberated across Europe.

Frederiksen, 46, is chairman of the Social Democratic Party and has been Denmark’s Prime Minister since 2019.

She has steered Denmark through the global COVID-19 pandemic and a controversial decision in 2020 to eradicate Denmark’s entire captive mink population to minimize the risk of the small mammals spreading the virus.

Attacks on politicians are rare in Denmark.

On March 23, 2003, two activists threw red paint at the then Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Parliament and were immediately arrested. Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller was also splashed with paint that day.