The fringe party founded by Paludan advocates a ban on Islam in Denmark, a complete stop to non-western immigration, and the deportation of non-western migrants currently in the country. This is not the first time Paludan’s stunts have been met with criticism, and his party’s Youtube account was closed down last year due to repeatedly ignoring the platform’s rules.
Paludan and another party member held a demonstration in Nørrebro, a multicultural neighbourhood in Copenhagen, on Sunday 14 April of this year. It consisted of the two men standing in the centre of a square, surrounded by police tape and escorted by several officers, throwing a copy of the Quran back and forth between each other and repeatedly letting it drop to the ground.
After a few minutes the men were seemingly attacked by a group of observers, who were quickly apprehended by nearby police. It is estimated that the police protection provided to Paludan and in response to subsequent demonstrations has cost Danish tax payers some 6 million Danish kroner, or around 800,000EUR, between 1 January and 7 April this year.
Local media reports that the unrest did not end with the initial violent response. Instead it spread to several parts of the capital, where police responded with teargas after being attacked with cobblestones, fireworks, chairs, tables, and other projectiles.
It is reported that around 70 fires were set across the capital in response to the stunt. One police officers was reportedly struck in the head by a cobblestone and had to be taken to hospital, but did not suffer major injury.
The Danish Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, tweeted that he “strongly disagrees with Paludan’s meaningless provocations that have no other purpose than create a rift”, and said to demonstrators “meet him with arguments - not with violence. Don’t let derogatory acts aimed at specific groups of people in Denmark ruin our unity.”
Meanwhile Pia Kjærsgaard, co-founder of “Dank Folkeparti” (Danish People’s Party) and Speaker of the Danish Parliament since 2015, responded: “I have great respect for our police! Protecting freedom of speech, but they get attacked with cobblestones by hardened youths from Nørrebro. Does their anger and violence have anything at all to do with Paludan? Or is it just hatred towards Denmark? Get them out of Denmark.”
