Voters in Slovakia, Italy and other EU nations were casting their ballots yesterday on the third day of elections for the European Parliament, while Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen canceled her appointments due to whiplash sustained in a street attack.
Frederiksen’s office said that she he had been taken to a hospital for a check-up after the attack on Friday evening in a Copenhagen square.
The assault has caused a “minor whiplash injury,” it said, adding that Frederiksen was “otherwise safe but shaken by the incident” and her schedule for yesterday had been cleared.
Photo: Reuters
Danish police said “a 39-year-old man will be brought before the Copenhagen district court for questioning” to decide if he is to be remanded in custody.
The hearing was expected at 1pm in Frederiksberg in Copenhagen, they added.
Two witnesses, Marie Adrian and Anna Ravn, told newspaper BT they had seen Frederiksen arrive at the square while they were sitting by a nearby fountain, just before 6pm on Friday.
“A man came by in the opposite direction and gave her a hard shove on the shoulder, causing her to fall to the side,” the two women told the newspaper.
They added that while it was a “strong push,” Frederiksen did not hit the ground.
They described the man as tall and slim, and said he had tried to hurry away but had not got far before being grabbed and pushed to the ground by men in suits.
The incident follows a spate of attacks on politicians from across the political spectrum at work or on the campaign trail in Germany ahead of this week’s EU elections while in Slovakia the election was overshadowed by an attempt to assassinate populist Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15.
Analysts say the attack could boost the chances of the Fico’s leftist Direction — Social Democracy (Smer) party, the senior partner in the governing coalition, to win the vote.
Fico, who took office last fall after campaigning on a pro-Russian and anti-US platform, has been recovering from multiple wounds after being shot in the abdomen as he greeted supporters in the town of Handlova.
Fico strongly opposes support for Ukraine in its war against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
After voting in a hospital in Bratislava yesterday, Fico said on Facebook that this election is important because “it is necessary to vote for MEPs who will support peace initiatives and not the continuation of war.”
In Italy, citizens aged 18 and above began casting ballots over two days to fill 76 European parliamentary seats.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is expected to be the big winner, reflecting her far-right Brothers of Italy’s growth, mostly at the expense of her coalition partners, the populist, anti-migrant League and the center-right Forza Italia.
While the vote is not expected to affect the balance in the governing coalition, the result could expand Meloni’s influence in the EU, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has not ruled out a coalition with her group.
Voters in Latvia, Malta and the Czech Republic were also casting ballots yesterday.
The final results would not be released until tonight, once every country has voted.
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