Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, a socialist, agrees with her right-wing counterparts that mass migration into Europe is a significant threat to the continent’s way of life.
Frederiksen acknowledged in an interview with Politico this week that U.S. Vice President JD Vance had a point when he scolded European leaders in Munich last month, and she admitted that she considers “mass migration into Europe as a threat to the daily life in Europe.”
“The message that our populations in almost all European countries have tried to send to politicians through the years: Please get in control [of] our borders and be decisive on migration,” she said earlier this week.
“No matter if you look at statistics on crimes or if you look at problems on the labor market, insecurity in local communities, it is the most vulnerable who experience the consequences [of migration],” the prime minister said.
Conservative leaders across the Old Continent have sounded the alarm on the need to curb or outright end immigration, particularly from nations outside Europe where cultural mores differ greatly from Western values.
The electorates in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and other nations are experiencing a marked shift rightward as frustration builds against establishment liberal governments’ inaction on rampant migration.
Frederiksen, a left-wing leader, bucks this trend with her blend of socialist policies and protectionist considerations that she believes fundamentally protect the blue-collar, working-class citizens most affected by migration and its consequences.
Between 2019 and 2024, Denmark accepted just 864 asylum claims.
“If I ask people about security and their security concerns, many of them will reply that Russia and defending Europe is top of mind right now. But security is also about what is going on in your local community,” Frederiksen said. “Do you feel safe where you live? When you go and take your local train, or when your kids are going home from school, or whatever is going on in your daily life?”
While noting that she deviates from Vance’s foreign policy position on matters such as Russian aggression, the prime minister acknowledged that the vice president was correct to reprimand European leaders in Munich during his landmark address last month — a speech she attended.
During the speech, Vance urged the political mainstream to take seriously the complaints of their voters across the political spectrum, accusing leaders of suppressing the will of their own people on issues such as immigration.
“What no democracy — American, German, or European — will survive is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations, their pleas for relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered,” Vance said. “Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There’s no room for ‘firewalls.’ You either uphold the principle or you don’t.”
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Vance’s speech was particularly aimed at Germany, the European nation experiencing perhaps the most high-profile political crisis surrounding mass migration.
The Alternative for Germany party doubled its support to over 20% during the February parliamentary elections, taking second place with unprecedented opposition to both legal and illegal immigration.
Despite the AfD’s surge in popularity, the country’s mainstream parties refuse to engage with the AfD’s members in the Bundestag, dismissing them as too far to the right.
The Christian Democratic Union acknowledged its first-place standing in the election was far from a victory worth celebrating, with leader Friedrich Merz warning it’s “five minutes to midnight” for the establishment to address voters’ concerns.
