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Denmark’s left-wing prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has sent shockwaves throughout the European left after recent comments about the Scandinavian nation’s — and the continent’s — failure to deal with radical Islam among migrant communities.
Her comments come after the mass migration chaos in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, when Frederiksen criticized the actions of Spain’s leftist leader, Pedro Sánchez, during a special session on Ceuta in the Danish Parliament.
Responding to a question from a far-left legislator on Denmark’s apparent lack of “solidarity” with Spain against “anti-democratic forces” pressuring Europe, Frederiksen said, “If we talk about undemocratic forces, then Russia is our biggest enemy. The problem is that a big enemy has started to grow from within, and it is foreigners who have come to Europe,” according to an English translation.
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Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen addressing the Danish parliament. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
While not singling out Denmark’s integrated immigrant population, she continued, “It is Hamas supporters. It is people who commit terror against European societies. It is people who do not recognize our fundamental European values. It is people who sympathize with some of the darkest forces in this world. So, Europe is threatened. The problem is that we are threatened both from outside and now from within, but it is not because of a disagreement between the Danish and Spanish governments, but because of people with an Islamic background who do not want the open, free European society, unfortunately.”
Sweden-based foreign policy expert and author Daniel Schatz told Digital, “What is striking is not that a conservative politician is talking about illegal immigration, failed integration and Islamist extremism, it is that one of Europe’s leading center-left prime ministers is saying it in such blunt terms. That tells you how far the European immigration debate has shifted.”
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Frederiksen came to power in Denmark’s 2019 elections on what Reuters called a “platform of radical reforms to reach climate targets, lowering the pension age for manual workers – and stricter migration policies.” Denmark already had some of the strongest asylum laws in Europe before 2019, including a 2018 law targeting “parallel societies.” That law allowed the government to “demolish or sell off social housing areas where more than half of residents are from a ‘non-Western’ background,” if certain criteria were met, and refugees in those areas are not eligible for family reunion.
In 2021, Frederiksen introduced a new deportation law allowing for refugees to be returned to their country of origin, if Denmark deemed it safe, even if Denmark had no diplomatic relations with that country, and even as the European Commission deemed Danish legislation on transferring asylum seekers to third countries while their claims were processed “incompatible with EU law.”
Escorted by the Spanish army, migrants who crossed into Spain return to Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)
Since June, Frederiksen has been a leading voice in opposition to the immigration policies of Spain’s Pedro Sánchez, telling Parliament, “It is no secret that I and the Spanish Prime Minister deeply disagree on immigration policy… I and we will not accept that Danish society has to pay the price for decisions in Spain that we fundamentally disagree with.”
On Aug 1, Frederiksen joined conservative Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and 20 other EU government leaders in a letter saying the EU “cannot allow mass crossings, the instrumentalization of migration or other hybrid threats to create the perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, addressed the media during a joint press conference after a meeting at Palazzo Chigi. (Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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The two, currently the only female heads of government in the EU, followed that letter with an Aug 10 joint statement saying they “are both proud of Europe’s Christian cultural heritage and we want to protect it. We expect that those who arrive in our countries and choose to make Europe their home respect our values and do not try to impose ways of life that we do not share. We believe that this is the right path to protect Europe and our common values. And we believe that millions of Europeans share this conviction.”
File photo showing men praying at a Mosque in Denmark. (Davut Colak/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Emma Schubart of the Henry Jackson Society told Digital, “Frederiksen is right to name the ‘enemy within’. Europe has spent years pretending that uncontrolled migration and failed integration come without consequences. They do not… Parallel societies have taken root, Islamist extremism has been allowed to fester and support for groups such as Hamas is no longer confined to the margins. Denmark understands the cost.”
Daniel Schatz said Frederiksen “is essentially arguing that Europe faces threats from two directions: Russia from outside and anti-democratic extremism from within. For a center-left European leader, that is remarkably strong language.” He noted Frederiksen’s “political formula has been straightforward: protect Denmark’s generous system of public benefits and social services, control the border and deny the populist right a monopoly on immigration. For an American audience, that is probably the most important thing to understand about the Danish model.”
A police vehicle is seen near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen, as police investigate two explosions near the site, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
Frederiksen’s position is important, he said, because she did not move politically “because Danish voters suddenly became concerned about immigration. She moved because she realized years ago that many of them already were.” He added, “The important distinction is that this is not an argument that immigrants are inherently criminal. It is an argument that a democratic society must be willing to confront failed integration when it occurs.”
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Schubart added, “Other leaders now need to show the same courage, secure their borders, deport those with no right to remain and make clear that integration into our laws and values is not optional.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
