Danish PM attacked in the street

​Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen gives her Constitution Day in Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 5, 2024.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen gives her Constitution Day in Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 5, 2024.

Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via REUTERS

Political violence is surging – even where you’d least expect it.

Danish PM Mette Frederiksen was attacked on a Copenhagen street on Friday, just two days before her country votes in EU Parliament elections. Her Social Democrats are the largest party in Denmark’s government, but they’ve been losing support in recent months.

Following a campaign event, a man reportedly walked up to Frederiksen and hit her in the city center late Friday. She was left in shock, and the assailant was arrested.

Fellow European politicians are taking to social media to offer support and condemn the attack, which comes just weeks after Slovakian PM Robert Fico survived a May 15 assassination attempt.

As we wrote earlier this week, scholars and police have been growing increasingly worried about the risk of political violence in both the US and Canada as both countries head into election cycles this year and next. But Europe is already in the throes of a tumultuous European election in which – amid sharp debates about immigration – the far right is expected to gain seats.

Stay tuned: We’ll be watching to see how Frederiksen bounces back from the attack, and how Danes and Europeans more broadly vote in the days ahead.

More from GZERO Media

French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, on March 17, 2025.
REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

Amid Europe’s growing rift with President Donald Trump, a French lawmaker this weekend called on the United States to “give us back the Statue of Liberty” now that Americans “have chosen to side with the tyrants.” But French President Emmanuel Macron came out with a more concrete plan to split with Washington: He's urging allies to buy European missile systems, not American ones.

Syrian troops sit atop a tank as they head toward the Syrian-Lebanese border following clashes with Lebanese soldiers and armed groups, in Qusayr, Syria, March 17, 2025.

REUTERS/Karam al-Masri

Fighting erupted across the border that separates Syria and Lebanon over the weekend.

Bottles of Champagne are seen on display for sale in a wine shop in Paris, France, on March 13, 2025.
REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

European leaders caught between the rock of needing Donald Trump to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine (while they aim to beef up collective defense) and the hard place of fearing economic contraction from US tariffs are quickly realizing that nobody is having fun anymore.

A coalition of labor unions, political action, and community groups march against DOGE and proposed cuts to Medicaid, housing, food assistance, and other vital programs in New York, New York, on March 15, 2025. Some expressed their outrage with Senator Chuck Schumer for voting to advance the Republican funding bill.
Gabriele Holtermann/Sipa USA via Reuters

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met in Brooklyn on Sunday to try to plot a Democratic legislative strategy at a time of deepening divisions within their party. They don’t appear to have found one.

- YouTube

As the Trump administration continues to reshape US foreign policy and retreat from global commitments, does that create an opportunity for China to step in? On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer is joined by Bill Bishop, writer of the Sinocism newsletter, for a wide-ranging conversation on China's political and economic landscape under President Xi Jinping and global ambitions in the wake of Trump 2.0.

Russian President Vladimir Putin could talks with President Donald Trump as early as this week. Artem Priakhin/SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
Artem Priakhin/SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss America’s 30-day ceasefire proposal this week after Ukraine endorsed the plan last Tuesday but Putin torpedoed it with a list of conditions.

President Donald Trump looks on as military strikes are launched against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, at an unspecified location in this handout image released March 15, 2025.

White House/Handout via REUTERS

The United States launched widespread strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen on Saturday, killing 53 people and injuring 98 — mostly women and children — as it targeted military sites and a power station in the rebel group’s southwest stronghold.