A man has reportedly assaulted Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in central Copenhagen, local media in Denmark said.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A man has reportedly assaulted Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in central Copenhagen, local media reported.
Police confirmed on Friday that “an incident involving the prime minister had occurred” and a 39-year-old man had been arrested. He is due to have a detention hearing on Saturday, police said.
Authorities have not released any further details and it is unclear whether Frederiksen was injured.
The prime minister’s office told Danish public broadcaster DR on Friday that Frederiksen was “shocked” by what had happened.
Witnesses Anna Ravn and Marie Adrien told the BT newspaper they saw the man walk towards Frederiksen and “push her hard on the shoulder, shoving her away”. They stressed that she did not fall.
Another witness, Kasper Jorgensen, told tabloid newspaper Ekstra Bladet that a well-dressed man, believed to be part of Frederiksen’s bodyguard unit, and police officers arrested the suspect.
Soren Kjaergaard, who worked at a local bar in Kulturvettle Square where the incident happened, told BT he saw Frederiksen after the incident and that he did not have any visible injuries to his face, but left quickly.
Politicians in Scandinavia and abroad condemned the reported attack.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson said “an attack on democratically elected leaders is also an attack on our democracy,” while European Council President Charles Michel condemned X’s actions as a “despicable act of aggression.”
European Union parliamentary elections are currently taking place in Denmark and the remaining 27 countries and are due to finish on Sunday.
Frederiksen was campaigning alongside the Social Democrats’ EU candidate Christer Schaerdemose, but reports said the attack was not related to the campaign.
Violence against politicians has become a hot topic in the run-up to the EU elections: in May, a candidate for Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats was assaulted and seriously injured while campaigning for a seat in the European Parliament.
In Slovakia, an assassination attempt on populist Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15th cast a shadow over the election campaign, shocked Slovakia’s 5.4 million citizens and sent ripples across Europe.
Violence against politicians is rare in Denmark.
On 23 March 2003, two activists threw red paint at then Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen inside parliament and were immediately arrested. That same day, Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller was also doused in paint.
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David Keaton in Berlin contributed to this report.
