Jacob Harris compares Denmark to a dictatorship. Løkke gives him the boot.

Several politicians were wide-eyed when independent MP Jacob Harris announced on Friday that he had been live on Russian state television.

On the sanctioned media Russia Today, he sends several serious accusations against Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S), the government, and all of Europe in a 13-minute interview.

- We want peace. We do not want war with Russia, as the government does, he says and continues.

- It is NATO that wants a war with Russia. What the reason is, I do not understand.

Harris also says in the interview that he believes Europe is moving from democracy towards a dictatorship.

- We talk about having democracy in Europe, but I think we are approaching a dictatorship.

----------------------------------------

Løkke: We are far past a useful idiot

----------------------------------------

This prompts Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M) to direct sharp criticism at Jacob Harris.

- We have had this concept of a 'useful idiot', but we are past that point, says Lars Løkke Rasmussen.

- I don't know if one should dignify it with more comments than that, he says.

But when he is asked whether it could be dangerous for Denmark, there was still a bit more to be had.

- I feel completely, completely confident that the Danish population can see that here we have a person who is way off on a tangent.

- It is clearly harmful, what he is doing. It is harmful to the country. It is harmful to everything, says Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who emphasizes that Harris of course has freedom of speech and can talk to whomever he wants.

-------------------------------------

'Decidedly dangerous and damaging to the country'

-------------------------------------

According to the Social Democrats' political spokesperson, Rasmus Stoklund, it is completely unacceptable that Harris appears on Russian state television.

- I almost have no words for how shocked I am at the behavior Jacob Harris displays, he says.

- Now it is starting to become decidedly dangerous and damaging to the country.

Stoklund believes that the interview with Harris will be used for Russian propaganda, which is about maintaining the Russian population's support for the war in Ukraine.

>

> It is completely equivalent to taking a rape victim and a perpetrator,

> and then telling the victim that now one would also like to see it from

> the perpetrator's perspective.

>

- The Russian embassy here in Denmark must be sitting there slapping their thighs with laughter, because you couldn't pay for better help than what Harris provides to Russia.

- It is completely equivalent to taking a rape victim and a perpetrator, and then telling the victim that now one would also like to see it from the perpetrator's perspective.

--------------------------------------

Harris: We should talk to both parties

--------------------------------------

It was after his visit to the Russian embassy that Jacob Harris was contacted by Russia Today. According to Harris, he has actually been contacted by several media outlets, he tells DR.

Jacob Harris also emphasizes to DR that he acknowledges that it is Russia that has invaded Ukraine, but that he participates in the interview to promote dialogue with Russia.

- We have had a prime minister who has had a very harsh rhetoric towards Russia. She has already said that we are in a hybrid war, and she has said that she does not buy the premise that we are not at war. You can see that they (the government, ed.) have taken more and more measures, which among other things mean that we are moving the war into Danish territory, building weapons factories here, wanting to deploy long-range missiles pointing towards Moscow. I just think it is wrong, says Harris.

You also mention in the interview that Denmark and Europe like to say that we have democracy, but you believe that we are approaching a dictatorship. Where do you see that?

- Yes, well, dictatorship was not built overnight, but it comes with small steps all the time. And when you start censoring media, foreign media, your own media, then I think we are moving in a dictatorial direction.

Why do you think a Russian media like Russia Today wants to talk to you?

- What they can use it for is to show that there is not only one way to view the war from the West. That is perhaps what has been a bit of the problem. That for the last five years we have talked war, war, war, and now there is a politician who talks peace, and that is a bit unusual for them, and of course they want to hear that.

-----------------------------

Met with Russian ambassador

-----------------------------

It is not the first time Jacob Harris faces criticism for his approach to the war in Ukraine.

On Monday he visited the Russian ambassador in Denmark, which was extremely unpopular among several of his fellow MPs.

Harris has also been opposed to letting Ukraine's President Zelenskyy speak from the podium of the Danish Parliament, which he did on Wednesday.

Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.