The Mink Commission (Danish: Minkkommissionen) formally the Commission of Inquiry into the Case of the Culling of Mink (Danish: Granskningskommissionen om sagen om aflivning af mink) is a Danish investigative commission set up by a majority in the Folketing in 2020 to investigate The Mink Case (Danish: Minksagen); the culling of all minks in Denmark during the COVID-19 pandemic. It began its work on 23 April 2021. The commission consists of national judge Michael Kistrup, who is chairman, as well as law professor Helle Krunke from the University of Copenhagen and lawyer Ole Spiermann from the firm Bruun & Hjejle. The Commission delivered its report on 30 June 2022, stating that the killing of all Danish mink had no legal justification, and that Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and the Danish government, particularly former Minister for Food, Mogens Jensen, had "grossly misled" the public, however it also stated that Frederiksen was not aware of the lack of legal basis when she publicly announced the culling. The report led the Social Liberals to threaten to rescind their support for the coalition government (thus resulting in a vote of no confidence) unless it called for a general election. A general election was held on 1 November 2022.
Background
The Danish government, led by the Prime Minister, held a press conference on 4 November 2020 as part of the handling of the Coronavirus pandemic. At the press conference, it was announced that it had been decided that all mink in Denmark should be killed due to concerns that the Cluster 5 mutation, which was found in mink and had been transmitted to humans, would have a reduced effect on the at that time coming vaccines against COVID-19. Following the decision, several law professors criticized the decision for not having the necessary legal authority, and called it a violation of the Constitution. Based on the criticism, the Folketing initiated an independent investigation into the killing of healthy mink, and a political majority decided on 10 December 2020 to set up an investigation commission to investigate the Mink case.
Terms of reference According to the Terms of reference of a commission of inquiry into the case of the killing of mink, the commission has the task of:
investigate and account for the overall course of events and for the actions and involvement of all relevant authorities and ministers in the decision and execution of the decision that all mink in Denmark as part of the efforts to combat covid-19 should be killed immediately (translated) The commission will focus in particular on the 14 days leading up to the press conference, where the decision was announced to the public, as well as how ministers and other relevant people reacted when they became aware of problems with a lack of legal authority. Furthermore, an independent assessment must be made of whether there was legal authority to make the decision and whether anyone can be held legally responsible for the process. However, the responsibilities of any ministers are not to be assessed. The health or veterinary basis for making the decision itself is not part of the commission's investigation. On 19 November 2021, the Folketing's Scrutiny Committee adopted an additional terms of reference, according to which the commission will investigate the police's use of an action card, which the police used to speak from when they called mink breeders with information that mink should be killed. It must be investigated by whom and why it was decided that the police should contact mink breeders outside infection zones and who decided to prepare the action card and when.
Investigation Following the commission's initial work on the review of around one million documents, the commission began questioning witnesses on 7 October 2021. A total of 74 people have testified, including 7 ministers, 3 special advisers, 55 officials, 7 police officers and 2 people associated with the mink industry. The questioning took place at the District Court of Frederiksberg.
Report On 31 May 2022, Ekstra-Bladet learned that the Mink Commission will criticize the Prime Minister's Office with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Head of Department Barbara Bertelsen at the top, and will give harsh criticism to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, with former Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Mogens Jensen at the top. The Mink Commission submitted its report to the parliament's Scrutiny Committee on 30 June 2022, and determined that there was no legal authority to demand that all mink be killed, and found that Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen grossly misled the population on the press conference on 4 November 2020. Despite the fact that Mette Frederiksen objectively misled the population, the commission concluded that she did not subjectively know it or intend to:
The Commission thus finds that Mette Frederiksen's statements at the press conference on 4 November 2020 were objectively grossly misleading, but that Mette Frederiksen subjectively had no knowledge of this or intention to do so. The Commission stated that the Prime Minister's Office had acted "very reprehensibly" and that the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries had acted "extremely reprehensibly", and found that 10 officials could be held accountable for negligence and misconduct, including the Head of Department of the Prime Minister's Office Barbara Bertelsen, Head of Department of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Henrik Studsgaard, Head of Department of the Ministry of Justice Johan Legarth and National Police Chief Thorkild Fogde. The Commission concludes in summary on the role of the Prime Minister's Office:
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