Denmark’s PM Sounds Alarm on Internal Migrant Challenges

Denmark’s left-leaning prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has stirred significant discussion across Europe with her candid remarks concerning the challenges posed by radical Islam within migrant communities across the continent, including her own nation.

Frederiksen’s statements followed recent upheaval in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, where she openly critiqued the handling of the situation by Spain’s leftist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, during a specially convened session in Denmark’s Parliament.

Addressing a question from a member of Denmark’s far-left bloc about the country’s perceived lack of “solidarity” with Spain in standing firm against “anti-democratic forces” impacting Europe, Frederiksen noted, “While Russia remains a significant adversary, a new internal threat is emerging from within, driven by foreigners who have arrived in Europe,” according to translations of her remarks.

Frederiksen clarified that her comments did not target Denmark’s integrated immigrant community but instead referred to “Hamas supporters and those perpetrating terror against Europe.” She warned of individuals who reject the continent’s core values, sympathizing with some of the world’s darkest ideologies, thus posing a dual threat from both external and internal fronts. The issue, she explained, is not rooted in any discord between Denmark and Spain, but rather stems from groups within the Islamic faith who oppose the open and free society Europe represents.

Sweden-based foreign policy expert and author Daniel Schatz told News Media, “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.”

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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.”

Emma Schubart of the Henry Jackson Society told News Media, “Frederiksen is right to name the ‘enemy within’. Europe has spent years pretending that uncontrolled migration and failed integration come without consequences. They do not… 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. Denmark understands the cost.”

Daniel Schatz said Frederiksen “is essentially arguing that Europe faces threats from two directions: Russia from outside and anti-democratic extremism from within. For a center-left European leader, that is remarkably strong language.” He noted Frederiksen’s “political formula has been straightforward: protect Denmark’s generous system of public benefits and social services, control the border and deny the populist right a monopoly on immigration. For an American audience, that is probably the most important thing to understand about the Danish model.”

Frederiksen’s position is important, he said, because she did not move politically “because Danish voters suddenly became concerned about immigration. She moved because she realized years ago that many of them already were.” He added, “The important distinction is that this is not an argument that immigrants are inherently criminal. It is an argument that a democratic society must be willing to confront failed integration when it occurs.”

Schubart added, “Other leaders now need to show the same courage, secure their borders, deport those with no right to remain and make clear that integration into our laws and values is not optional.”