Mette Frederiksen

Mette Frederiksen is a Danish politician who has served as Prime Minister of Denmark since June 2019, and Leader of the Social Democrats since June 2015. The second woman to hold either office, she is also the youngest prime minister in Danish history.

Besides a brief career as a trade unionist (2000–2001), Frederiksen has never had any employment outside politics. She was first elected to the Folketing in the 2001 general election, representing Copenhagen County. After the Social Democrats won the 2011 general election, she was appointed Minister of Employment by Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. She was promoted to Minister of Justice in 2014. After the Social Democrats' narrow defeat in the 2015 general election, Thorning-Schmidt stood down, and Frederiksen won the subsequent leadership election to replace her, becoming Leader of the Opposition. Frederiksen led her party into the 2019 general election, which resulted in the bloc of left-wing and centre-left parties (her Social Democrats, the Social Liberals, the Socialist People's Party, the Red–Green Alliance, the Faroese Social Democratic Party, and Greenland's Siumut and Inuit Ataqatigiit) winning a majority in the Folketing. Frederiksen was subsequently commissioned by Queen Margrethe II to lead negotiations to form a new government, and was sworn in as prime minister on 27 June. In December 2021, she became the longest-serving incumbent female head of government in the European Union.

In July 2022, the Mink Commission released a report that criticized Frederiksen's government's handling of the Cluster 5 COVID-19 outbreak among Danish mink, though it absolved Frederiksen of deliberate misleading of the public. The Danish Social Liberal Party brought an ultimatum against Frederiksen threatening to bring a motion of no confidence against her government if she did not call for an early election. On 5 October 2022, Frederiksen announced that an election was to be held on 1 November of the same year. The election resulted in the best result for the Social Democrats in 20 years with the party gaining two more seats for a total of 50. Frederiksen herself received 60,837 votes, the most of any candidate. On 13 December 2022, Frederiksen announced that an accord on a coalition government with the Social Democrats, the Venstre (Denmark's liberal party) and the Moderates had been reached, with herself continuing as prime minister.

Prime Minister of Denmark :

2019 election 

The 2019 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.

2020 mink cull

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 by many is described as in violation of the 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 6 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. Leader of the Social Liberal Party, also a supporting party, Sofie Carsten Nielsen 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 later announced on 5 October 2022 that a general election would be held on 1 November 2022. 

Frederiksen received an official reprimand from the Folketing on 5 July 2022 for her actions in handling the mink case. The reprimand stated that Frederiksen had "acted highly criticisable". This was given to her by her own government, with her own party, Social Democrats, not stating that she had committed any errors; the opposition did not participate as they considered it inadequate.