COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A man reportedly assaulted Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in central Copenhagen, local media said.
Police confirmed “there has been an incident with the prime minister” on Friday and that a 39-year-old man was arrested. He is expected to face a custody hearing Saturday, police said.
Authorities didn’t provide further details and it was not clear if Frederiksen was hurt.
The prime minister’s office told the Danish state broadcaster DR on Friday that Frederiksen was “shocked” by what happened.
Two eyewitnesses, Anna Ravn and Marie Adrian, told the daily BT that they saw a man walking toward Frederiksen and then “pushing her hard on the shoulder so she was shoved aside.” They stressed that the premier did not fall down.
Another witness, Kasper Jørgensen, told the Ekstra Bladet tabloid that a well-dressed man, who seemed part of Frederiksen’s protection unit, and a police officer took down the alleged assailant.
Søren Kjærgaard who was working at a local bar on Kultorvet Square where the incident happened told the BT that he saw Frederiksen after the incident and she had no visible injuries to her face but walked away quickly.
Politicians in the Scandinavian country and abroad condemned the reported assault.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that “an attack on a democratically elected leader is also an attack on our democracy,” while Charles Michel, president of the European Council, condemned on X what he called a “cowardly act of aggression.”
AP
