Mette Frederiksen, Danish Prime Minister in the running to become patron of the alliance

She would be the first woman elected to lead the Alliance. Mette Frederiksen, 45, current Prime Minister of Denmark, will be received Monday, June 5 by US President Joe Biden, in Washington, as part of his candidacy for Secretary General of NATO.

Elected at the head of a left-wing coalition in 2019, she distinguished herself for her management of the Covid-19 pandemic, while being weakened by the “mink scandal” which almost cost her her job.

“Put on the Red”

Mette Frederiksen was born in 1977 in Jutland, the mainland peninsula of Denmark, to a teacher mother and a typographer father. After studying African history and a youth engaged in the left wing of the Social Democratic Party, which earned her the nickname “Mette la Rouge”, she was elected, at only 24 years old, deputy to the Folketing, the Danish Parliament.

His rise continued with his appointment as head of the employment ministry ten years later, then of justice in 2014, before taking over as chairman of his parliamentary group the following year. In 2019, after stormy legislative elections, she managed to form a minority government and thus became the country’s youngest prime minister, at 41.

Mink “Affair”

During his tenure, his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has been praised by Danes. But faced with the worrying appearance of a variant in certain mink farms, of which Denmark was until then the world’s leading exporter, Mette Frederiksen orders in 2020 their complete slaughter, i.e. more than 15 million heads. This decision will earn him a reprimand from a commission of inquiry, opened shortly after, which considers this choice unconstitutional.

Having become a veritable “mink affair”, the slaughter of the animals was heavily reproached to him even in his ranks, since the left-wing radicals threatened the Prime Minister to bring down the government by a motion of censure. Under pressure, she decided in October 2022 to call nine-month early legislative elections.

Mette Frederiksen then directs her program towards a restrictive migration policy close to that of the extreme right, showing herself in particular in favor of the outsourcing to Rwanda of the reception of asylum seekers. A winning bet, since in early November it won a narrow majority of 90 seats out of 179, thanks to its alliance with the centre-right liberals.

Tripling of Danish military spending

Candidate for the General Secretariat of NATO, Mette Frederiksen will be received Monday, June 5 by Joe Biden. If the 30 ambassadors of the member states of the institution must give their approval to validate the choice of the new boss of the institution, it is the American president who will have the last word to designate the successor of Jens Stoltenberg. The Norwegian had announced his wish to retire, after three terms since 2014.

The Europeans had then expressed their wish to see a woman take up the post, after 13 men. Apart from Mette Frederiksen, other candidacies are under consideration, such as that of the former president of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaité, or even her Estonian counterpart, Kersti Kaljulaid. “The choice is always made at the last minute and the reappointment of Jens Stoltenberg is still on the table,” Alliance diplomats told AFP.

The candidacy of Mette Frederiksen is also not decorrelated from the announcement, at the end of May, of the tripling of military spending in Denmark. These should increase from 6.9 billion crowns (a little less than one billion euros) to 19.2 billion crowns (2.6 billion euros) in 2033. Respecting the budget devoted to investments in equipment, personnel and military infrastructure, set at 2% of GDP by NATO for 2024, represents an essential condition for the accession of the Prime Minister of the country to the head of the institution.

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