Home Europe Denmark Prime Minister Assaulted in Central Copenhagen, Man Held

Denmark Prime Minister Assaulted in Central Copenhagen, Man Held

"Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was beaten on Friday evening at Kultorvet in Copenhagen by a man who was subsequently arrested. The Prime Minister is shocked by the incident," her office said in a statement.

COPENHAGEN: The Prime Minister of Denmark 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 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 details.


Police said on social media platform X they had arrested a man and were investigating the incident.

“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.

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The assault comes two days before Danes head to the polls in the EU election.

“Mette is naturally shocked by the attack. I must say that it shakes all of us who are close to her,” Danish Minister of Environment Magnus Heunicke said on X.

There has been a spate of attacks on European leaders over the past few weeks.

While Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico is recovering< from an attempted assassination by a gunman three weeks ago, Social Democrat Member of European Parliament Matthias Ecke was attacked and beaten up while campaigning in Germany.

And on Tuesday, a politician from the far-right Alternative for Germany party was stabbed by a suspect wielding a box cutter in Mannheim.

(REUTERS)