A European Union country is clamping down on mass migration as its socialist leader agrees with US Vice President JD Vance that it’s posing a “threat to daily life” in Europe. Denmark’s centre left prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, may be one of the few socialist leaders remaining in power across the EU, but her stance on migration echoes that of Donald Trump.
“I consider this mass migration into Europe as a threat to the daily life in Europe,” said the leader of the wealthy Scandinavian welfare state, resonating what Vance said just weeks earlier at the Munich Security Conference. “No matter if you look at statistics on crimes or if you look at problems on the labour market, insecurity in local communities, it is the most vulnerable who experience the consequences.”
Frederiksen’s words ring similar to what Trump and Vance have previously said on immigration, being that migrants are taking jobs from American people and making the country more dangerous.
In February, the US Vice President addressed EU leaders, stating that he believes immigration was a bigger threat than Russia.
He said: “No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.
“But you know, what they did vote for? In England, they voted for Brexit. And agree or disagree, they voted for it. And more and more, all over Europe, they’re voting for political leaders who promise to put an end to out-of-control migration.”
The president of Denmark has taken a similar stance, enacting some of the most severe immigration policies in Europe.
Known as “zero asylum”, the measures include confiscating valuables to pay for accommodation costs, threatening timely deportations for settled Syrians and negative advertising across countries where people travel from to deter migrants.
Perhaps the most controversial of all, the president’s “No Ghetto” law aims to reduce the number of foreign-born individuals in Danish neighborhoods.
As well as this, a law passed in 2021 allows for refugees to be relocated in processing centres in non-EU partner countries. This has resulted in a steep drop of asylum claims, with just 864 approvals in 2024.
Frederiksen’s governing Social Democrats achieved a great victory in the 2022 Danish General Election, seeing their best result in 20 years, winning 28% of the vote.