Polish man ‘too drunk to remember’ punching Danish PM

A Polish man has pleaded not guilty to punching Denmark’s prime minister, saying he was too drunk to remember the incident.

The suspect, who cannot be named because of legal restrictions, has gone on trial in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, charged with violence against a public servant, as well as several counts of indecent exposure and fraud relating to other incidents.

He has pleaded guilty to some of the other charges and could face a prison sentence and deportation.

PM Mette Frederiksen suffered minor neck and shoulder injuries as a result of the attack, which took place just three weeks after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was seriously injured in an assassination attempt.

The 39-year-old Polish man told the court he had been having a bad day when he came face to face with Ms Frederiksen in Copenhagen in June, just two days before the European Parliament elections.

“I’m standing face to face with Mrs Prime Minister, [then] I can’t remember anything else until I am arrested,” he said, quoted by AFP news agency.

Ms Frederiksen, who was punched in the shoulder, was able to leave the scene unaided.

She said at the time she was “shaken” by the incident, but “fine”.

The prime minister was taken to hospital for a check-up and then withdrew from the last day of campaigning for the European elections.

She will not be called as a witness in the trial.

But one of her bodyguards has testified, saying that the man came up to her on a busy street, said something incomprehensible to her and gave her “a hard punch with his fist on her shoulder”.

Ms Frederiksen, 46, is leader of Denmark’s Social Democrats, the biggest party in Denmark’s coalition government.

She took office in 2019, making her the youngest prime minister in Danish history.