Translation

Dear all, Denmark has in recent days been subjected to hybrid attacks.

Drones have been seen in several places near critical infrastructure, both military and civilian.

These are attacks that we must expect more of.

And these are attacks that have revealed vulnerabilities.

And these are attacks aimed at creating insecurity and division.

These are attacks meant to shake us as people and as a society.

I fully understand that the situation raises many questions.

Why were the drones not shot down, and why were they not detected earlier?

And there will come a time when we must look back at the events of recent days and learn from them.

But here and now, as government and authorities, we have an overriding task, and that is to protect Denmark.

And to make us better able to counter hybrid attacks as quickly as possible.

And where are we now?

First, the authorities have raised the level of preparedness, and they are preparing for different scenarios.

This means, among other things, that both the military and the police will be more present with anti-drone capabilities around critical infrastructure in the coming period.

At the same time, the authorities are in close contact with our allies with a view to quickly strengthening our own Danish capabilities to detect and to combat drones.

Second, the authorities have the mandate to take down hostile drones.

But, of course, it is the responsible authorities who must make the operational assessment in the specific situation, including of the specific security risks.

And third, over the past days, I have been in contact with a number of my European colleagues.

I have spoken with the German Chancellor, the British Prime Minister, the Prime Ministers of our neighboring countries Sweden and Norway, and with the Finnish President.

I have also been in close dialogue with NATO’s Secretary General.

And from the Danish side, we are now in close dialogue with NATO allies about how they can assist Denmark in the current situation, so that we can protect and defend our airspace.

The hybrid attacks have not only hit Denmark.

There have recently also been incidents in Poland, Estonia, and Romania.

Hybrid warfare is not a war in the traditional sense.

Hybrid attacks are meant to confuse us.

They are meant to make us insecure.

And they come from a cowardly enemy who does not dare reveal themselves.

One time it may be drones.

Another time it may be cyberattacks, or what we call disinformation, or interference in elections, conspiracy theories one reads online.

But regardless of which method we will face, the purpose is the same.

They want to destabilize our society, and they want us to no longer trust our authorities.

And all of this underlines that the security threat to Europe is serious and growing.

That is why in recent years we have been carrying out a massive strengthening of our own Danish defense.

It is also why we have continued to support Ukraine, which I believe can help us in this situation.

Because if anyone has expertise in fighting drones, it is our friends in Ukraine, and that is why we are, of course, now in dialogue with them.

I must also say that it takes time to rebuild Danish defense.

I am not asking for patience with this, because in truth, I do not have it myself.

But we are in a hurry.

And I ask for understanding that even though we are in a hurry, it cannot be done overnight, or even from one year to the next.

And I must also say, and this is particularly directed at some of the parties in Parliament, that the goal of hybrid attacks is not only to test our authorities or our preparedness.

It is, as mentioned, also to see how we react as a society and how we react politically.

We must be vigilant, and if something is not working, it must of course be corrected.

That is what we are doing.

But we must also keep calm.

This is not the time for quick statements, political bidding wars, or declarations of no confidence in the authorities or the police.

Because there are no responsible politicians who can guarantee the Danish people that we can completely avoid hybrid attacks.

That is not possible in any country.

And in fact, it is quite the opposite.

We are likely to see more sabotage, more hacker attacks, even more drones, undersea cables being destroyed, direct attacks on European democracies, as we currently see in the small country of Moldova.

That Denmark and Europe are under more severe and frequent hybrid attacks, I consider a new reality.

Next week, all European heads of state and government will meet here in Copenhagen.

We will discuss European defense and security.

Including the establishment of a joint drone defense.

In other words, Europe must strengthen itself, we must rearm, and we must never let ourselves be deceived, for that is not who we are as Danes, and that is not who we are as Europeans.

In these hours and days, we are very much in what one could call the initial phase of immediate crisis management.

We have experienced this before in other situations.

And I have said this before: in handling a difficult crisis, there is always a risk of making mistakes.

And it is not always possible to quickly provide good answers to the questions that will continuously arise.

But as a government, we will strive to tell the public what we can.

The same will the authorities.

Of course with caution.

Because those who wish us harm are listening in on all the discussions we have with each other.

And although the authorities cannot conclude who is behind the hybrid attacks on our airports and other critical infrastructure, we can at least state that there is primarily one country that poses a threat to Europe’s security, and that is Russia.

And therefore, a final important point.

There is no European country that can defend itself alone against Russia.

Not even Ukraine, which has otherwise bravely fought for more than three years now.

And that is precisely why we have our NATO alliance.

That is why we are expanding the European defense industry today.

And that is why we are carrying out a historic rearmament here in Denmark.

And the events of recent days only underline how important it is that we act, but that we do so together with others in Europe and in NATO.

Thank you for listening.