The Danish Prime Minister apologized on Saturday after being filmed without a mask in a store, contrary to the new anti-Covid rules in force, at the dawn of a difficult week when she passed before a parliamentary commission of inquiry.
The video, published at the end of the morning by the Danish daily Ekstra Bladet, was taken on Friday by a passerby through the front of a clothing store in central Copenhagen, four days after the return of the obligation to wear a mask in certain places and public transport. “It was just an oversight after the new rules came into effect. I realized this because a citizen filmed me, ”Mette Frederiksen quickly reacted on social networks.
“I know it can happen to anyone. But ideally not for me. So I obviously regret it and I want to thank you again for everything we are doing together to contain the epidemic, ”continues the head of the Social Democratic government.
Put Frederiksen in the sights of a parliamentary committee
The incident falls badly for the Prime Minister, who is to be heard Thursday by a parliamentary committee. This is investigating its decision to slaughter the more than 15 million farmed mink in the country to avoid the risk of mutation of the virus responsible for Covid-19.
Announced as a matter of urgency in November 2020, this order turned out to have no legal basis at the time, which had already resulted in the resignation of the Minister of Agriculture and the apologies of Mette Frederiksen to the breeders, who believed they were legally forced to kill their animals. The commission is now investigating whether the Prime Minister was aware at the time of the decision that no law allowed her to impose it.
But the case took another proportion when the press revealed the disappearance of the head of government’s text messages, which were automatically erased by software after 30 days, according to her cabinet for security reasons. The Danish Parliament had finally urgently passed a law banning mink farming in 2021, which was then extended to 2022, devastating the industry. Until then, Denmark was the world’s leading exporter of mink skins raised for their delicate fur, and the world’s second largest producer after China.