COPENHAGEN

While Denmark’s prime minister disagrees with the US administration on Russia and Greenland, she said US Vice President JD Vance “had a point” on migration, Politico reported Thursday.

“I consider this mass migration into Europe as a threat to daily life in Europe,” Mette Frederiksen told Politico.

At the Munich Security Conference last month, Vance said: “There is nothing more urgent than mass migration,” calling it a bigger threat than Russia.

While Frederiksen disagreed with him on Russia, she echoed his views about the need to get tough on borders.

“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.

Frederiksen, a center-left leader, has taken one of the toughest stances on migration in Europe, making Denmark’s policies among the strictest in the world.

Since her election in 2019, she has pushed for a significant crackdown on asylum seekers, a move that has helped maintain her popularity in Denmark but drawn sharp criticism from human rights organizations.

Refugee advocates have accused her government of racism and discrimination, but her approach has resonated with Danish voters.

While many European conservatives, including leaders in Austria, Hungary, Germany, and the Netherlands, have echoed similar positions, Frederiksen is one of the only socialist leaders in Europe to advocate such policies.

“I totally believe in equal opportunities and a Scandinavian welfare model with a tax-paid education, social benefits and health care. But for me that’s only one traditional pillar of being a social democrat,” she told Politico. “Being in control of migration is the second pillar.”

- Syrian refugees

Earlier in December 2024, Prime Minister Frederiksen, following her zero-refugee policy, said that Syrian refugees in Denmark should return to their home country now that conditions have changed following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

"You are a refugee temporarily when conditions make it impossible to live where you come from," Frederiksen said.

"When those conditions change, I firmly believe and encourage people to return to their country to help rebuild it. I would do the same myself."

The prime minister stressed that many Syrians in Denmark do not hold permanent residency.

“Therefore, of course, we expect them to go back now,” she said.

More than a decade after the conflict broke out in Syria, about 35,000 Syrian nationals live in Denmark.