Protesters bowed to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen when she appeared in court in Frederiksberg in Copenhagen on Wednesday morning.
After the Prime Minister left the car she arrived in, it was surrounded by protesters, who smashed one of the taillights.
The killing root has upset many in Denmark.
– ANGRY: Denmark has around 1,000 mink breeders. Everyone lost their livelihood when the government decided that all mink should be killed. Photo: RITZAU SCANPIX
–
The Mink Commission has set aside the whole day for her explanation of what happened in the weeks before the Danish government in November 2020 decided to kill all mink in the country. The reason was that a dangerous mutation of the coronavirus had been detected in some of the animals.
– MASS GRAVE: Danish authorities received help from the defense to get rid of the quantities of dead mink. Photo: Morten Stricker
–
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.
– VISITED AFFECTED: Mette Frederiksen was clearly moved during a visit to a mink farm near Kolding at the end of November last year. Photo: Mads Nissen
–
Said it was urgent
The day before, the Prime Minister was informed that a mutation in mink could weaken the effect of the vaccines.
Frederiksen says that she remembers what happened well:
– I sat in isolation at Marienborg, and worked day and night. There had been a terrorist attack in Vienna, but then also came these violent reports about mink, and that it could lead to problems with the vaccine the whole world was waiting for, says the Prime Minister.
A note from a meeting the next day shows that Frederiksen says that this had to be put down, because it could weaken the vaccines, and that it was urgent.
At a ministerial meeting later in the day, notes show that Frederiksen asked for the effort to be stepped up.
Asked several times about the necessity
Frederiksen denies that before the decisive meeting on the day of the decision she had expressed whether she wanted all mink killed or not.
– I think I asked three times, maybe even four, if one was absolutely sure that it was necessary to make this far-reaching decision, the Prime Minister says to the commission.
She further says that the information they had at the time, made her think that they had to act quickly.
– HAD TO GO: Mogens Jensen had to resign as Minister of Food due to the mink scandal. Photo: Untv
–
Frederiksen points out that they have been told that the epidemic control can potentially be significantly worsened, the infection is rising and there is also no explanation for why the mink infection is moved from farm to farm.
– In addition, there is a risk that the world community believes that Denmark does not handle the situation correctly, she says.
Assume that it was legal authority
Six minutes before the decisive meeting, new documents dealing with legal authority are received. But these are not read. Frederiksen says the reason is time pressure.
The Prime Minister also tells the commission that it had been assumed that they had legal authority.
– Why did you not ask for a reading break? There were not so many pages, you might be able to read them in five minutes?
– It was my clear conviction that we had to react. Our great concern was to be accused of sitting on knowledge that the entire world community was concerned about, Frederiksen answers.
When asked if they did not have a responsibility to read the material, the Prime Minister says that it is completely legitimate to deviate from normal procedure when one must act quickly.
– Weakened politically
The police have also looked at what happened during this period, and have seized telephones and iPads from the Prime Minister’s office.
But both Frederiksen and four close employees throughout this period, have had a function that deletes all SMSs after 30 days.
The intelligence service is working to recreate the politicians’ deleted SMSs, after the police technicians failed to do so.
– EXCAVATED DOWN AND EXCAVATED UP: The dead animals were first dug into the ground. Later they were dug up again to be burned. Photo: Morten Stricker
–
The Mink chaos has weakened the prime minister politically, according to Jyllands-Posten’s political analyst, Niels Th. Dahl.
With less than a year and a half until the next parliamentary election and the case of the deleted SMSs, it makes it difficult for Mette Frederiksen to build a new platform to go to the polls on, he believes.
–
:strip_icc():format(jpeg)/kly-media-production/medias/863964/original/057138600_1430223052-Hubble_Reflects_the_Cosmos_-_Video_-_NYTimes.com.mp4_snapshot_00.28__2015.04.28_16.03.27_.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
