A Polish man is set to stand trial in Denmark on Tuesday (August 6th) for allegedly attacking Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in the center of Copenhagen in early June. The man, aged 39, is facing charges of assaulting a public official.
During the pretrial, the accused denied the charges. According to the police, he claimed he couldn’t remember what happened because he was intoxicated at the time.
The prosecutor Line Steffensen cited by Agence France-Presse said that the man stole alcohol from a grocery store and was heavily intoxicated when he attacked the Prime Minister.
Steffensen mentioned that since moving to Denmark five years ago, the man has been arrested multiple times for shoplifting.
The trial at the Copenhagen district court began at 9:30 am on Tuesday and is scheduled to last for two days. Danish media reported that neither the prosecution nor the defense will summon Frederiksen as a witness during the trial.
In a statement released after the incident, the Prime Minister’s Office stated that the attack occurred on a square in central Copenhagen. The Prime Minister, accompanied by security, suffered minor neck injuries and was subsequently treated, diagnosed with “a strained right shoulder and minor whip-lash neck injuries.”
Witnesses described the suspect approaching the Prime Minister and forcefully pushing her shoulder, causing her to lean to one side but not fall. Following the attack, the suspect attempted to flee but was apprehended by several men in suits shortly afterward.
Copenhagen police stated on the social media platform X that the attack appeared to have no political motive.
A few days later, Frederiksen mentioned in a TV interview that she had noticed a shift in public discourse in recent years, with comments on social media becoming sharper and more aggressive, stating that “many people are shouting in public spaces, and people’s behavior is very, very confrontational.”
On the evening of June 7th, just two days before the European Parliament elections, Frederiksen was attacked near the official residence in Copenhagen at Kultorvet Square. She sustained minor injuries to her neck and subsequently canceled several campaign events.
The 46-year-old Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen took over as the leader of the center-left Social Democrats nine years ago and became the Prime Minister of Denmark in 2019, winning re-election in 2022.
Her party currently holds the largest number of seats in the Danish parliament with 50. In the 2024 European Parliament elections held in June, the party secured three seats with a vote share of 15.6%. While the number of seats remained the same as the previous election, the vote share decreased by 5.9%.