World News

Danish PM ‘not doing great’ four days after Copenhagen attack

Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister of Denmark, said she needed time off with her family to heal from the shock of being attacked in a Copenhagen park last week. She returned to work but is still "not feeling great."

 

Frederiksen, 46, told the public station DR in her first interview since the attack last Friday, in which she got slight whiplash, that she was still in pain in her head, neck, and shoulder but that the psychological shock had hurt her more.

 

There is someone who crosses the last physical barrier that you have and is allowed to have as a person. That is very scary. "That shocks and surprises me," she said, adding that she was not quite herself yet.

 

A Polish guy, 39 years old, has been charged with abusing someone who works for the government.

 

In Europe, there have been several recent attacks targeting politicians. In May, Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, was shot and seriously wounded. Additionally, a member of the Social Democrats in Germany was attacked while erecting signs in Dresden.

 

A senator from Germany was hit over the head and taken to the hospital for a short time. In the city of Mannheim in southwest Germany, a candidate for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party was stabbed.

 

Police say the man walked up to Frederiksen just before 6 p.m. local time on Friday on Kultorvet, a famous public square in central Copenhagen lined with cafes, and punched her in the upper arm with his closed fist.

At a Saturday hearing, he said he thought Frederiksen was "an excellent prime minister." It has not been named. According to the police, he was highly drunk and probably on drugs at the time of the attack. They do not think it was political.

 

Frederiksen informed DR that "It was quite frightening." "You should dedicate time to being with your family and close friends now." I desired solitude. She mentioned that the assault occurred following a series of personal insults and amidst worsening public debate.

 

"From my point of view, it is probably a mix of many other things, too," she told the station. "Threats and a very harsh tone on social media over a long period that has gotten much worse, especially since the war in the Middle East."

 

"People are becoming outraged and shouting in public places." "Maybe this was the last straw." She said that the attack "crossed a line" and that it happened because she was known as prime minister, even if it was not political.

 

Frederiksen said, "As a person, it feels like an attack on me." "But I am sure the prime minister was hit." Because of this, it is also an attack on all of us. We live in a world where violence has no place.

It was also said, "I am Mette at my core, but I am also the country's prime minister. As such, I am a position and an institution in our society that you should not attack, just like you should not attack the police."

 

She said, "I am still doing my job as prime minister, and I always want to do that." Saturday and Sunday, I could do that, too, but I usually do it differently. She said that the attack would make people think about security in the future.

 

She said, "Something is cooking in society." "I can feel it in my coworkers, too." We have to deal with a lot more now than before. "Huge boundaries" had changed around what lawmakers could see, she told DR, and there were some places they could no longer go.

 

"I feel so sad about this because we have always been so happy and proud to live in a country where the prime minister rides his bike to work and we meet at Brugsen," she said.

 

"Every time something else happens, we feel safer, scarier, and farther away." It would be better for Denmark if the prime minister could ride his bike to work without fear.

 

She said that the attack had not made her question "whether it was all worth it," but she canceled all of her plans for the weekend, including a party for her Social Democrats party on Sunday after the European Parliament polls.

 

A record-low 15.6% of the vote went to the Social Democrats. The night's big winner was the Green Left party, which got 17.4% of the vote. However, three MEPs will receive votes from both parties.

 

Frederiksen said that the outcome was a message from the people. She told him, "I am sorry about this score." "I hear you." It is valid for both the Social Democrats and the Alliance government.

 

When Frederiksen took office in 2019, she was the youngest first lady of Denmark. In 2022, she was re-elected to the legislature.