Denmark’s Leader to Testify in Mink Cull Probe as Crisis Looms

(Bloomberg) -- Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen faces one of her biggest tests yet as she is due to testify about last year’s mass culling of the farmed mink in an inquiry that has eroded the public’s trust.

Frederiksen, 44, will take the witness stand on Thursday in the parliamentary probe into her controversial decision to cull 17 million mink over Covid-19 mutation concerns. The backing for her one-party cabinet, buoyed by the swift and firm response when the pandemic first hit Denmark, has plunged after a string of embarrassing revelations. 

The inquiry follows a rushed and messy process that forced a cabinet minister to resign and dented the Nordic country’s reputation. It has sought to clarify whether the Social Democrat premier and her administration knew the mass slaughter was unlawful ahead of the decision. 

“It’s a party, which has gone from complete control of Danish politics three months ago, to being thrown into a real crisis, which has created cracks in the party’s fundamental credibility,” Noa Redington, who served as special adviser to previous Social Democrat premier Helle Thorning-Schmidt, told local broadcaster TV2.

In a new twist, the probe uncovered in October that Frederiksen and three senior staffers had automatically deleted all text messages from their devices, prompting opposition speculation that the government is trying to hide evidence. While the court had asked the prime minister’s office to restore the deleted material, those efforts failed, according to Frederiksen’s office.

With the solid lead of Social Democrats over their rivals having crumbled this year, the recent polls have the government and its supporting bloc neck-and-neck with the right-wing opposition. The Social Democrats were still the largest party at last month’s local election, but saw a 4 percentage drop in support since the previous local election. 

The parliamentary probe is scheduled to publish its findings by April 2022, roughly one year before the next general election.

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