Denmark’s PM assaulted in Copenhagen; police arrest suspect
Mette Frederiksen’s office says she was ‘beaten’ by man in Danish capital; witness reports she had no outward signs of harm, was escorted away by security
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen walked away following an assault by a man in central Copenhagen on Friday and had no outward signs of harm, a local resident told Reuters.
“Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was beaten on Friday evening at Kultorvet (square, red.) in Copenhagen by a man who was subsequently arrested. The Prime Minister is shocked by the incident,” her office said in a statement without giving further detail.
Police said on social media platform X they had arrested a man and were investigating the incident but declined to give further detail.
“She seemed a little stressed,” Soren Kjergaard, who works as a barista on the square, told Reuters after seeing the prime minister being escorted away by security following the assault.
The assault comes two days before Danes head to the polls in the EU election. Three weeks ago, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico was seriously injured in an assassination attempt.
There have also been a spate of attacks on politicians from across the political spectrum at work or on the campaign trail in Germany ahead of the EU election.
Danish Minister of Environment Magnus Heunicke said on X: “Mette is naturally shocked by the attack. I must say that it shakes all of us who are close to her.”
EU chief Charles Michel and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola on Friday slammed the attack on Frederiksen.
Metsola urged the Danish head of government to “keep strong”, while adding in a post to X that “violence has no place in politics.”
Michel in turn said he was “outraged by the assault.”
“I strongly condemn this cowardly act of aggression,” the European Council president said in a separate post to X.
