Danish PM’s Car Vandalised by Protesters During 'Minkgate' Hearing

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen adamantly defended the 2020 preventive cull of 15 million healthy mink, which has been haunting her and her party ever since, by calling the decision “unfortunate”, but “the right thing to do”.

The Danish police had to escort Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s car away from the Frederiksberg court, after protesters had encircled the vehicle and inflicted some minor damage, including a broken rear light.

Frederiksen, who had been summoned to a court to meet a commission surveying the so-called “Minkgate”, her government’s decision in 2020 to cull the entire stock of farmed mink due to a fear of COVID-19 mutations, was not in the car at the time of the incident, TV2 reported.

As the car became encircled by protesters, the Copenhagen police decided to shield it.

“In connection with this, a rear light was smashed on the car. It has now been driven away from the location. We are looking further into what happened,” the police said in a statement.

Subsequently, two people were arrested as a result of disturbances related to the demonstrations, the Copenhagen Police said. One of the individuals arrested was seized for violent or threatening behaviour towards service personnel, and the other for making offensive remarks.

As she arrived at the court, Frederiksen was booed by a sizable gathering of protesters, some of whom held signs calling to put her in prison. Others mentioned the “lost” text messages related to the cull, which, as Frederiksen and her team claim, were automatically deleted and are a topic of inquiry as well. Yet another sign read “Ignorance doesn't absolve one of responsibility,” referring to the government's claims it didn't know the order to cull mink lacked legal basis at the time it was issued, which is why it had to be green-lit retroactively.

Statsminister Mette Frederiksen (S) blev torsdag morgen mødt af buhråb fra de demonstranter, som havde taget plads foran Retten på Frederiksberg, hvor statsministeren klokken 09:00 skal afhøres i den såkaldte 'Minkkommission'.https://t.co/lYCfIDbweb

— Presse-fotos.dk (@pressefotosdk) December 9, 2021

Frederiksen, however, was adamant about the cull, calling it the decision “unfortunate”, but “the right thing to do”.

The decision to kill 15 million mink to stop a mutated COVID strain from interfering with the vaccination campaign was found to be unconstitutional, as Danish law doesn't allow the killing of healthy animals. Subsequently, Frederiksen's Food Minister and fellow Social Democrat Mogens Jensen took the blame and left his post over the affair that, as analysts argued, undermined the ruling party's stance in the recent municipal election. The cull effectively eradicated a thriving sector, as Denmark was one of the world's leading producers and exporters of fur.