Danish PM under fire over deleted texts in mink scandal

Denmark’s prime minister was under fire Thursday for deleting text messages related to last year’s illegal culling of farmed minks over coronavirus fears.

Formerly the world’s leading exporter of mink fur, the Scandinavian country controversially killed all of its 15-17 million minks over a mutated strain of the virus found in some minks.

Studies had suggested the variant could jeopardise the effectiveness of future vaccines.

But with the mass gassing programme already underway, a court challenge to the order found that the government’s decision had no legal basis.

Under the legislation, the government only had the authority to ask mink farmers in the seven municipalities affected by the mutation to cull their minks.

An agreement was reached retroactively rendering the government’s decision legal and the nationwide cull went ahead as planned.

An official inquiry into the government’s handling of the matter had requested access to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s cell phone text messages and those of three close advisers.

However, the prime minister said they no longer existed as her phone setting automatically deleted them after 30 days.

“I was advised by the prime minister’s office to have automatic deleting of my text messages turned on for security reasons, and I chose to follow that advice,” Frederiksen told Danish television TV2 on Thursday.

But questions arose over the policy.

The justice ministry said Thursday that its minister Nick Haekkerup’s phone had never been set to automatically delete messages.

Former Liberal prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the same.

The opposition, led by the Liberal party, on Thursday urged the justice minister to demand a police investigation into the deleted text messages and to have the missing texts restored.

Frederiksen is due to testify before the inquiry on December 9.

Agence France-Presse

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