Denmark’s Prime Minister’s Office admits it found a phone backup linked to the country’s mink case but never gave it to the police, sparking renewed political debate in 2025.
A Newly Discovered Backup Raises More Questions
The Danish Prime Minister’s Office in 2021 found a computer with a backup of a senior civil servant’s phone while investigators were searching for deleted text messages connected to the mink scandal. Instead of turning the computer over to the police, the office investigated it internally and later reported finding no messages.
The data came from the phone of Pelle Pape, a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office. Like Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and others, he had set his phone to automatically delete messages. The internal review used a program called iBackup Viewer to examine the contents.
Pape played a key part in the events of 2020, when the government decided to cull all mink in Denmark due to virus fears. He had written a now-infamous text suggesting officials should “shut down the whole thing” regarding the mink industry, a message he later apologized for.
Experts Criticize Decision Not to Involve Police
Digital forensic experts told Danish media that the decision to keep the backup in-house was highly questionable. The police, they said, had both the resources and the technology to analyze such material more effectively.
The missing messages were key to understanding communications between Frederiksen and her staff at the crucial moment when the nationwide mink cull was ordered without proper legal authorization.
The Prime Minister’s Office has since defended its actions, saying all possible material was provided to investigators and that its internal review found nothing relevant in the backup data. A formal note from the office documenting the discovery was eventually shared with the Danish Parliament on the same day journalists obtained it through public records requests.
Frederiksen Rejects Calls for Reopening the Case
Even today, the mink affair continues to haunt Danish politics. Opposition members have repeatedly demanded new efforts to recover deleted messages or reopen the investigation. But Prime Minister Frederiksen insists that everything has already been examined thoroughly, including by a full commission of inquiry.
She has stated that repeated claims about missing evidence are misleading and that the case has been reviewed “again and again.” Still, for many in Parliament, curiosity about what might lie hidden remains strong.
Political Reactions Across Party Lines
The revelation of the phone backup has drawn reactions from both sides of the political spectrum. Troels Lund Poulsen, leader of the Liberal Party (Venstre) and a government partner, acknowledged that the information about the backup was new to him. He called on the Prime Minister’s Office to clarify its handling of the evidence.
On the left, members of the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) have questioned why a majority in Parliament still refuses to demand a deeper inquiry. They argue that when a commission requests documents or data, authorities should make every effort to provide them.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Alliance’s legal spokesperson expressed disbelief that further evidence keeps surfacing years later. He criticized what he described as repeated failures to investigate crucial material properly, despite the government’s insistence that “everything has been reviewed.”
Time Limits Close the Door on Legal Action
Given Denmark’s five-year statute of limitations under its Ministerial Accountability Act, the opportunity for any new legal proceedings related to the original mink decision has expired. The order to cull all mink was issued in November 2020.
Although Frederiksen’s coalition and the Socialist People’s Party (SF) have since extended that limitation period to six years, this change is not retroactive. That means the legal consequences of the original decision can no longer be pursued, even as public and political interest in the situation continues.
Ultimately, the discovery of the forgotten backup reinforces the impression that some aspects of Denmark’s largest political scandal in years remain unsettled. The issue symbolizes how the mink scandal still lingers in the public consciousness, raising doubts about transparency at the very top of government.
Sources and References
The Danish Dream: Danish mink scandal continues to haunt PM Mette Frederiksen
The Danish Dream: Best lawyer in Denmark for foreigners
DR: Statsministeriet fandt backup af central embedsmands telefon under minksagen
