Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says she is still not quite on top after a violent assault on Friday.
After she was assaulted by a man on Kultorvet in Copenhagen on Friday evening, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) needed peace to recover from the shock and spend time with her family.
She says this in her first interview since the attack, which meant that the Social Democratic prime minister did not participate in the final sprint to the EP elections or the party’s election party.
– I’m not quite at the top, and I’m not quite myself yet, says Mette Frederiksen.
A 39-year-old Polish man has been charged with violence against a person in public service .
According to the police, the man, who was heavily influenced at the time of the crime, hit the prime minister on the right upper arm with his fist.
Mette Frederiksen says that it is more the psychological after-effects that have caused her to withdraw from the public in recent days.
– I needed peace. I haven’t tried that for many years, and that’s because it settled a little heavier and a little deeper in me, she says.
– It was a big scare. In that situation, you need some time with your family and those close to you, says Mette Frederiksen.
Describes assault as ‘intimidating’
The attack came after a long period with a harsh tone of debate and personal attacks, says the prime minister.
– As far as I’m concerned, it’s probably also an accumulation of many other things, i.e. threats over a long period of time and a very harsh tone on social media, which has gotten worse, she says.
She says that especially after the Gaza war began, she has experienced a lot of shouting and people behaving “very aggressively” in the public space.
– So maybe that was the final straw, says Mette Frederiksen.
She describes the assault as “cross-border” and “intimidating”.
– There is some shock and some surprise in it, she says.
Although there was allegedly no specific political stance or motive behind the attack, the Prime Minister has no doubt that the attack was linked to the fact that the suspected perpetrator recognized her as Prime Minister.
– As such, I have no doubt that it was the prime minister who was attacked by the perpetrator. In that way, it also becomes an attack on all of us, she says.
– Because I am Mette in my own core, but in these years I am also the country’s prime minister, and thus a position and an institution in our society that you must not actually attack, just as you must not attack the police either, says she.
‘There is something wrong in our society’
The assault also leads to considerations about how she will move in large gatherings in the next while, she says.
She sees the assault as another sign that the boundaries of what politicians risk being exposed to are “moving wildly” in these years.
– Something is brewing in our society these years. I can feel it in my colleagues too. We have to deal with more than we usually do, which is not fair, she says.
The Prime Minister says that this has already meant that there are places where politicians no longer go.
– I am so sad because we have always been so happy, and I think proud, of a country where the prime minister cycles to work and we meet down in Brugsen, she says.
– Every time one more thing happens, there is a little more protection, we become a little more afraid, or there is a little greater distance, she says.
– I would rather have that Denmark, where a prime minister can cycle to work without being afraid.
Working more from the office
It also hurt to read that there were users on social media who paid tribute to the attack on her, says the Prime Minister.
– It is very borderline-crossing when you have been exposed to something, that there are people who are happy about it, she says.
However, the assault has not at any time prevented her from carrying out the job as Prime Minister, says Mette Frederiksen (S)
– I look after my work as Prime Minister, but I do it a little more from my office than I usually do, she says.
