AWhen the call came that all mink on her farm and in all of Denmark had to be killed, she felt queasy. She sat down, she cried. Ann-Mona Kulsø Larsen can still remember the day in November 2020 clearly. A few hours later she saw Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on television announcing the decision to the public. It had been discovered that coronaviruses had mutated in mink and fears for the effectiveness of the vaccines. All of the 15 million or so animals were to be killed, including the approximately 15,000 mink on Kulsø Larsen’s farm.
The fact that this decision later got the government into trouble and ultimately led to new elections no longer makes any difference to Kulsø Larsen. The animals are dead, she doesn’t want to start over. Frederiksen’s Social Democrats should nevertheless become the strongest force again. Whether she stays prime minister is another question.
When the Danes elect a new Folketing this Tuesday, a short and curious election campaign will end. Everything seems to be in motion. Since the 2019 election, old parties have collapsed, new ones have emerged and risen. The red-blue bloc divide that has long defined Danish politics could blur and a former prime minister could become kingmaker with his new party – all against the backdrop of the crises of the time. And it started with the minks.
Kulsø Larsen stands in one of the mink stables on her farm near Næstved and tells of the good times. Hundreds of cages lined up behind her, all open and empty. Denmark was a global giant in mink fur production by 2020, a “world champion,” she says. The best animals, the best feed, the best conditions. There were more than 1,100 breeders, with a turnover of several billion crowns. Then everything ended very quickly. Kulsø Larsen tells how friends and neighbors in the stables also helped kill the animals and take them away. She couldn’t sleep. The mink breeders tried to persuade the authorities to at least be able to keep the breeding animals. It did not help.
It later turned out that the government did not have the right to decide on the culling. A minister had to go and a commission of inquiry was set up. When the commission’s report was published this summer, criticism of Frederiksen and her government was clear, with several top officials being punished. The prime minister always wanted to appear strong and powerful, says Kulsø Larsen. But that was a panic decision, a sign of weakness. She still gets angry when she thinks about that time.
Her hands-on manner brought Frederiksen approval
The minks themselves hardly play a role in the election campaign these days. But the question of what this scandal says about the leadership of the 44-year-old Frederiksen does. But it doesn’t have to end badly for them. In 2019 Frederiksen won the election with her Social Democrats. She leads a minority government made up solely of her party. As early as 2019, she presented herself as a consistent decision-maker in the election campaign – at that time, above all, with a view to the hard line in asylum and integration policy, which she implemented in her party and after the election. When the Corona crisis began, this hands-on approach brought her a lot of approval. Clear announcements, quick reactions, good figures. Denmark came through the pandemic well, especially compared to neighboring Sweden. If only it hadn’t been for the minks.
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