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MASS GRAVE: Danish authorities received help from the defense to get rid of the quantities of dead mink. Photo: Morten Stricker
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In retrospect, it has turned out that the government did not have the legal authority to make the decision.
Affects the Prime Minister’s credibility
Frederiksen has previously said that she was not aware that there was a lack of legal authority for mass slaughter, and that it is therefore not her responsibility – even though she is head of government.
– This case has created problems for the Prime Minister’s personal credibility, says political editor of TV 2 Denmark, Hans Redder.
He says that Mette Frederiksen played an important role in the course of the mink killing.
“The Prime Minister wanted to gas mink”
When asked when she heard about the mink infection for the first time, Frederiksen tells the commission that she was presented with a case about it in June 2020. The same month, she approved a monitoring strategy of the mink infection.
Over the autumn, the infection among mink increased, and the Prime Minister says that this led to concern.
The commission then refers to an email sent after a meeting of the government’s finance committee on 30 September 2020. Here the secretary writes to the head of the ministry in the Ministry of Finance that it “apparently was very close that the Prime Minister’s office sent in the military to gas all mink tonight”.
According to TV 2 Denmark, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has a small smile on her face when she comments on this email.
– I have seen this quote about something with “gassing”, she says.
Then she goes on to say that this is not something she has been involved in.
– I do not have the imagination to imagine that there have been discussions about specific killing methods in the Prime Minister’s office, says Frederiksen.
She also emphasizes that the killing of all mink in the country is not being considered at this time.
That decision will be made on the evening of 3 November.