‘I am not quite myself,’ Danish prime minister says following attack

Frederiksen, 46, was assaulted by a man who hit her Friday evening on Kultorvet, a busy square in the Danish capital, just two days before Danes voted in the European Parliament elections — the world’s largest election outside India.

“It was very intimidating when someone crosses the last physical limit you have,” Frederiksen said Tuesday. “There is some shock and surprise in that.”

Frederiksen did not provide details about the attack but said she had seen threats on social media and that shouting in public had worsened “especially after the war in the Middle East.”

Danish police arrested a 39-year-old Polish man over the assault and said they did not consider his actions to be politically motivated. He will be held in custody until June 20, police said amid the investigation.

The man, who has not been publicly identified, has since said that Frederiksen was “a really good prime minister,” the Associated Press reported. Investigators are considering that the suspect was intoxicated and under the influence of drugs at the time of the assault.

The attack on Frederiksen, the latest incident of violence during the European election, sparked condemnation at home and abroad.

E.U. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the attack as “despicable” and said it “goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe.”

In May, a gunman shot Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico several times, gravely injuring the leader. That same month, German social democrat Matthias Ecke of the European Parliament was hit by a man while putting up campaign posters in Dresden, forcing him to undergo surgery.

Frederiksen expressed concern during the interview about the aggression politicians face in society. “I would rather have a Denmark where the prime minister can bicycle to work without being worried,” she said. “As a human being, it feels like an attack on me. But I have no doubt that it was the prime minister that was hit,” she said.

Frederiksen who in 2019 became the youngest prime minister in Denmark’s history at age 41, said the attack felt like “a kind of attack on all of us.”

Sammy Westfall contributed to this report.