Denmark’s Prime Minister is attacked in Copenhagen: Man arrested as Mette Frederiksen is ‘beaten’ in the capital

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was attacked by a man in central Copenhagen earlier today.

Police said on social media platform X that they had arrested a man and were investigating the incident, but declined to provide further details.

Her office said in a statement: ‘Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was beaten on Friday evening on Kultorvet (ed.) in Copenhagen by a man who was subsequently arrested. The Prime Minister is shocked by the incident.”

A local resident, Soren Kjergaard, who works as a barista in the square, saw the prime minister being led away by security after the attack.

She claimed the Prime Minister was unharmed in the attack and showed no outward signs of damage, although she “seemed a bit stressed.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a Nordic summit in Stockholm on Friday, May 31, 2024

The attack comes two days before Danes go to the polls for the EU elections and just three weeks after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was seriously injured in an assassination attempt.

Fico, 59, was shot in the abdomen last month as he greeted supporters outside a cultural center in the town of Handlova, almost 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of the capital Bratislava.

Video footage showed the Slovak prime minister approaching people gathered at barricades and extending their hands as one man stepped forward, extended his arm and fired five shots before being tackled and arrested.

Haar later underwent a two-hour surgery to remove dead tissue from his gunshot wounds.