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| Denmark's left-wing PM warns: 'Big enemy has started to grow from within' as Europe faces migrant reckoning | ||
| 2026-08-25 | ||
[FoxNews] Mette Frederiksen has long pushed strict migration rules and recently warned about Islamic extremism on the continent
Her comments come after the mass migration chaos in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, when Frederiksen criticized the actions of Spain's leftist leader, Pedro Sánchez, during a special session on Ceuta in the Danish Parliament. Responding to a question from a far-left legislator on Denmark’s apparent lack of "solidarity" with Spain against "anti-democratic forces" pressuring Europe, Frederiksen said, "If we talk about undemocratic forces, then Russia is our biggest enemy. The problem is that a big enemy has started to grow from within, and it is foreigners who have come to Europe," according to an English translation.
Sweden-based foreign policy expert and author Daniel Schatz told Fox News Digital, "What is striking is not that a conservative politician is talking about illegal immigration, failed integration and Islamist extremism, it is that one of Europe’s leading center-left prime ministers is saying it in such blunt terms. That tells you how far the European immigration debate has shifted." Frederiksen came to power in Denmark’s 2019 elections on what Reuters called a "platform of radical reforms to reach climate targets, lowering the pension age for manual workers - and stricter migration policies." Denmark already had some of the strongest asylum laws in Europe before 2019, including a 2018 law targeting "parallel societies." That law allowed the government to "demolish or sell off social housing areas where more than half of residents are from a ‘non-Western’ background," if certain criteria were met, and refugees in those areas are not eligible for family reunion. In 2021, Frederiksen introduced a new deportation law allowing for refugees to be returned to their country of origin, if Denmark deemed it safe, even if Denmark had no diplomatic relations with that country, and even as the European Commission deemed Danish legislation on transferring asylum seekers to third countries while their claims were processed "incompatible with EU law." Since June, Frederiksen has been a leading voice in opposition to the immigration policies of Spain’s 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 government leaders in a letter saying 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 that letter with an Aug. 10 joint statement saying they "are both proud of Europe’s Christian cultural heritage and we want to protect it. We expect that those who arrive in our countries and choose to make Europe their home respect our values and do not try to impose ways of life that we do not share. We believe that this is the right path to protect Europe and our common values. And we believe that millions of Europeans share this conviction." Related: Mette Frederiksen 08/24/2026 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: August 23, 2026 Mette Frederiksen 07/08/2026 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: July 7, 2026 Mette Frederiksen 02/14/2026 Munich Security Summit: UK will deploy fleet of warships and fighter jets to Arctic, Starmer announces | ||
| Posted by:Skidmark |