Mette Frederiksen

Mette Frederiksen was born on 19 November 1977 in Aalborg, located in the North Jutland Region of northern Denmark. Her father, Flemming Frederiksen, worked as a typographer, while her mother, Anette Frederiksen, was a teacher. As a teenager, she campaigned to preserve rainforests, protect whales, and end apartheid. At the age of 12, she joined the international youth wing of the African National Congress. Frederiksen attended Aalborghus Gymnasium, after which she spent a gap year in rural Kenya living with a host family as part of an exchange program. She holds a bachelor's degree in Administration and Social Sciences from Aalborg University, and a master's degree in African Studies from the University of Copenhagen.

Frederiksen worked as a youth consultant for LO, The Danish Confederation of Trade Unions. She was elected as a member of parliament for Copenhagen County in the 2001 Danish general election, which saw the Social Democrats losing the first place and placing second for the first time since 1920. After her election, Frederiksen was named as her party's spokesperson for culture, media, and gender equality. In 2002, she received the Nina Bang award for "showing political courage, enthusiasm and impact with social feeling". Frederiksen received the Ting Prize in 2012. She co-authored the books Epostler (2003) and From Fight to Culture (2004).

After the 2005 Danish general election loss, Frederiksen became her party's spokesperson for social affairs. Following the election, she also served as the vice-chairperson of the parliamentary group of the Social Democrats. In the 2007 Danish general election that saw the Social Democrats losing two seats, Frederiksen obtained 27,077 votes, placing her seventh in the ranking of the ten Danish politicians with the most votes.

After the 2011 Danish general election that led to a Social Democrats government, Frederiksen served under Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt as Minister for Employment from 2011 to 2014 and Minister of Justice from 2014 until she succeeded her as party leader. As Minister of Employment, Frederiksen sought reforms of early retirement pensions, flex jobs, and the employment system. The controversial cash assistance reform meant lower cash benefits for young unemployed and provided cohabiting mutual support, among other things.

Under Frederiksen's leadership after the 2015 Danish general election in which the Social Democrats returned to power and gained three seats in the Folketing, the party has moved back to the left on economic issues while taking a conservative stance on immigration.

The 2019 Danish general election saw the Social Democrats gaining a further seat while support for the Danish People's Party and the Liberal Alliance collapsed, costing Lars Løkke Rasmussen his majority. With the result beyond doubt on election night, Rasmussen conceded defeat. Frederiksen was appointed prime minister on 27 June 2019, heading an exclusively Social Democratic minority government supported by the red bloc of the Social Liberal Party, the Red-Green Alliance and the Green Left. Despite having run on an anti-immigration stance during the election, Frederiksen briefly shifted her stance on immigration by allowing more foreign labour and reversing government plans to hold foreign criminals offshore after winning government.

At a press conference on 4 November 2020, Mette Frederiksen stated that the government had decided that all mink in Denmark should be killed due to the risk of infection with COVID-19. Subsequently, it emerged that this order was illegal and was described by many as being in violation of the Danish Constitution. The government came up with changing explanations and several parties in the Folketing demanded an account of the mink case. The statement was published on 18 November 2020 and it emerged that six ministers had been warned on 1 October 2020 that the order was illegal. Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Mogens Jensen withdrew immediately. Mette Frederiksen has denied knowledge of the lack of legal basis.

A commission of inquiry was set up to investigate the case, delivering its report on 30 June 2022. The report stated that Frederiksen's statements at the press conference on 4 November 2020 were "objectively grossly misleading", but that she was not aware of the illegality of the order to kill all mink. The Red-Green Alliance and Green Left, both of which are supporting parties of Frederiksen, announced they would not be voting for independent lawyer examination of the report, which could lead to impeachment. Sofie Carsten Nielsen, the leader of the Danish Social Liberal Party, also a supporting party, similarly did not want independent examination but demanded a general election before 4 October 2022. If her demands were not met, she promised to support a motion of no confidence against Frederiksen. …

Frederiksen has stated a desire to be "Prime Minister of Children", and in 2021, she presented a plan called "Law of Children", aiming to put children first in social cases, including giving municipalities more resources to take children away from violent parents, and to give children more rights in divorce cases. In 2020, she also made a deal with the Socialist People's Party, the Red-Green Alliance, and the Danish People's Party, in order to give people who have worked for long the ability to get early retirement. This was also one of Frederiksen's main promises during the 2019 election campaign.

Frederiksen is a vocal opponent of prostitution because she considers it violence against women. For many years, she has strongly advocated for the prohibition of the purchase of sex, as in Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. In 2002, she opened the debate on the abolition of prostitution, and was behind the 2009 congressional decision that the Social Democrats would "work for a ban on the purchase of sexual acts", saying that prostitution caused mental health damage to the prostitute.

Frederiksen became increasingly sceptical of mass immigration, as she believes it has had negative impacts for much of the population, a more pressing issue since at least 2001 after the September 11 attacks which intensified during the 2015 European migrant crisis. In a biography, Frederiksen stated: "For me, it is becoming increasingly clear that the price of unregulated globalization, mass immigration, and the free movement of labour is paid for by the lower classes."

Under Frederiksen, the Social Democrats voted in favour of a law allowing Danish authorities to confiscate money, jewellery, and other valuable items from refugees crossing the border. The bill received harsh condemnation from the United Nations Human Rights Council, and widespread comparisons between the plan and the treatment of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. The Social Democrats voted for a law banning the wearing of burqas and niqābs, while abstaining during a vote on a law on mandatory handshakes, irrespective of religious sentiment, at citizenship ceremonies and on a plan to house criminal asylum seekers on a bridgeless island on which they would have to stay at night. …

Frederiksen has two children from her first marriage. On 15 July 2020, Frederiksen married her longtime boyfriend Bo Tengberg, a film director. They were married at the Magleby Church, an affiliate of the Church of Denmark on the island of Møn. Frederiksen has said that she is a non-religious person, but that she enjoys attending church for its cultural value in Danish life.

A man assaulted Frederiksen in the Kultorvet public square in central Copenhagen on 7 June 2024, two days before the 2024 European Parliament election in Denmark. This was one of several instances of political violence leading up to the elections: in May, Slovak prime minister Robert Fico was shot several times. Bystanders said that she was roughly shoved, causing her to fall sideways, though she did not hit the ground. A 39-year-old man from Poland was identified as a suspect and ordered to appear in court, although he denied the charges.

Frederiksen was taken to Rigshospitalet, and the Prime Minister's Office later released a statement from an orthopedic attending physician, which stated that Frederiksen had suffered a "contusion (to the) right shoulder and minor distortion [of] cervical vertebrae (whiplash)", but was otherwise in good condition. Police said that the suspect was a Polish national and that there appeared to be no political motive for the attack. Days later, she said that she was still shaken by the incident, but said she believed it was "the prime minister who got hit", differentiating it from an attack on her personally.

Environment minister Magnus Heunicke wrote on X that the attack "shakes all of us who are close to her". European Council president Charles Michel stated he was "outraged". Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, called the attack "despicable". On 7 August 2024, Frederiksen's attacker was convicted by the Copenhagen District Court and sentenced to four months imprisonment, deportation and a ban from entering Denmark for six years following his release.