The Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, was attacked by a man on Friday (06/07/2024) in a square in Copenhagen, where the Police arrested the attacker, her office reported in a statement.
“Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was beaten by a man on Friday night in Kultorvet in Copenhagen. The man was detained,” the report said. She added that Frederiksen was “shocked by the incident.”
Police in Denmark’s capital confirmed that an incident involving the prime minister had occurred, but gave no further details.
“We have a person detained in relation to the case, which we are investigating. At this time we have no further comments or observations about the case,” he stated in a statement on X.
Two witnesses, Marie Adrian and Anna Ravn, told BT newspaper that they saw Frederiksen arrive at the square. “A man came from the opposite side of her and pushed her hard by the shoulder, causing her to stagger next to her,” the two women told the newspaper. They indicated that despite being a “strong push”, Frederiksen did not hit the ground and went to sit at a nearby cafe.
Condemning reactions
“I must say that it shocks all of us who are close to her,” said Danish Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke in a message on social media. “Something like this should not happen in our beautiful, safe and free country,” he added.
The incident comes after a wave of attacks against politicians across the ideological spectrum in Germany ahead of this week’s European Union elections.
On May 15, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot four times while greeting supporters after a government meeting in the central town of Handlova. ico survived the attack after being taken to a nearby hospital and undergoing surgery.
European Council President Charles Michel “strongly condemned this cowardly act of aggression,” while European Parliament President Roberta Metsola wrote in X that “violence has no place in politics.”
“I am shocked by the news of the attack on the Danish Prime Minister,” said the Prime Minister of Italy, Georgia Meloni, after describing what happened as “an act of intolerable violence that represents an attack at the heart of democratic values.” .
The president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, and the prime minister of Portugal, Luis Montenegro, also repudiated the attack, who “firmly condemned this violent attack against a democratically elected leader.”
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European Parliament elections in 2024
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