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Denmark's left-wing PM warns Europe faces an enemy growing from within
ReDenmark's left-wing PM warns Europe faces an enemy growing from within
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, a center-left leader, has warned that Europe faces a growing internal threat from radical Islam and failed integration, a shift that signals how far the continent's immigration debate has moved.
Denmark's center-left Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has sent a jolt through European politics with blunt remarks warning that the continent faces a growing internal threat from radical Islam and failed integration, a message that underscores how dramatically the immigration debate has shifted across the political spectrum.
Speaking during a special session in the Danish Parliament about the migrant crisis in Spain's North African exclave of Ceuta, Frederiksen responded to a far-left legislator's question about Denmark's lack of “solidarity” with Spain against “anti-democratic forces.” She said that while Russia remains Europe's biggest external enemy, “a big enemy has started to grow from within, and it is foreigners who have come to Europe.”
Frederiksen elaborated on the threat, citing “Hamas supporters,” people who commit terror against European societies, and those who “do not recognize our fundamental European values.” She said Europe is threatened from outside and now from within, “not because of a disagreement between the Danish and Spanish governments, but because of people with an Islamic background who do not want the open, free European society.”
The comments are striking not because a conservative politician made them, but because Frederiksen is one of Europe's leading center-left prime ministers, according to Daniel Schatz, a Sweden-based foreign policy expert and author. “That tells you how far the European immigration debate has shifted,” he said.
Frederiksen came to power in Denmark's 2019 elections on a platform that combined radical climate targets, a lower pension age for manual workers, and stricter migration policies. Denmark already had some of Europe's strongest asylum laws before her tenure, including a 2018 law targeting “parallel societies” that allowed the government to demolish or sell off social housing areas where more than half of residents are from a “non-Western” background. In 2021, Frederiksen introduced a deportation law allowing refugees to be returned to their country of origin if Denmark deemed it safe, even without diplomatic relations, despite the European Commission calling similar legislation “incompatible with EU law.”
Since June, Frederiksen has been a leading voice against the immigration policies of Spain's socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, telling Parliament, “It is no secret that I and the Spanish Prime Minister deeply disagree on immigration policy… I and we will not accept that Danish society has to pay the price for decisions in Spain that we fundamentally disagree with.”
On Aug. 1, Frederiksen joined conservative Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and 20 other EU leaders in a letter stating that the EU “cannot allow mass crossings, the instrumentalization of migration or other hybrid threats to create the perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible.” The two, currently the only female heads of government in the EU, followed with a joint statement expressing pride in Europe's Christian cultural heritage and demanding that those who arrive respect European values and “do not try to impose ways of life that we do not share.”
Emma Schubart of the Henry Jackson Society said Frederiksen is right to name the “enemy within,” arguing that Europe has spent years pretending uncontrolled migration and failed integration come without consequences. “Parallel societies have taken root, Islamist extremism has been allowed to fester and support for groups such as Hamas is no longer confined to the margins,” she said. “Denmark understands the cost.”
Schatz noted that Frederiksen's political formula has been straightforward: protect Denmark's generous welfare system, control the border, and deny the populist right a monopoly on immigration. He said she moved on this issue not because Danish voters suddenly became concerned about immigration, but because she realized years ago that many of them already were. He stressed that her argument is not that immigrants are inherently criminal, but that a democratic society must confront failed integration when it occurs.
