CAUGHT in the CROSSFIRE

How Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is navigating threats from both friends and foes

- MATTHEW TOSTEVIN

DANISH PRIME MINISTER METTE FREDERIKSEN leads what consistently ranks as one of the world's most peaceful countries. Her office in the neo-baroque Christiansborg Palace overlooks a picturesque capital city as orderly as any in Europe. But at the top of her agenda is preparing for war. From the East there is a growing menace from Russia as it battles Ukraine and prepares for possible attacks elsewhere in Europe, Frederiksen tells Newsweek in an interview in Copenhagen.

At the same time, she must navigate Denmark's relationship with NATO ally the United States, which has been thrust into uncertainty by President Donald Trump's repeated assertions of his desire to take over Greenland, part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

The world order established after World War II and the peaceful progress made since the end of the Cold War is in danger, Frederiksen says. That is, she believes, an immense challenge for a Europe that had grown accustomed to peace for 30 years and threatens to sideline other issues such as addressing climate change.

“It’s like we convinced ourselves that everybody wants to be like us, or everybody seeks peace and wants peace. But it’s not the case. Russia does not want peace. They want war,” she says. “I think they are willing to attack again in Ukraine, or another place in Europe.”

“I think it was an era. I think we are in the beginning of a new one with more uncertainty, an era that is more insecure and therefore also more dangerous.

But I think the answers have to be the same. I mean that democracy has to win, and that all countries have to respect the UN Charter, so the principles have to be the same.”