Danish PM candidate admits to cocaine use

Danish PM candidate admits to cocaine use Liberal Alliance leader Alex Vanopslagh revealed in a Facebook post Sunday that he had taken cocaine while serving as party leader, following pressure from Danish media. “So yes, I have tried taking cocaine during my early time as party leader. It happened once or twice at most in a festive setting — and of course, never while I was at work,” wrote Vanopslagh, whose right-leaning party is currently third in the latest polls ahead of the March 24 election. The 34-year-old prime ministerial candidate, who is challenging Mette Frederiksen, came under fire for initially refusing to answer the question — one that is now being posed to all party leaders in Denmark before citizens go to the polls next week. Vanopslagh said he has changed his lifestyle since then, following a period of illness. “Since going through my stress-related illness, I have not touched anything beyond a glass of wine. It is not exactly something I want to share, because I know how the media will present it. I can already imagine the newspaper headlines,” wrote Vanopslagh, hoping that Danes will instead “judge me for who I am today.” “It speaks for itself,” said Frederiksen, when asked whether Vanopslagh can still be a candidate to take her role. Troels Lund Poulsen, leader of center-right Venstre and a prime ministerial candidate from Denmark’s right-leaning “blue bloc,” which the Liberal Alliance is part of, was asked whether he could work with Vanopslagh. “It is up to Liberal Alliance. It is not me who will decide that,” said Poulsen, who has received support from other blue bloc parties except for Vanopslagh’s, who chose to put himself in the running for the position. Venstre is currently part of the coalition government with Frederiksen’s Social Democrats. The Liberal Alliance leader also lobbied in 2023 to legalize the sale of cocaine in pharmacies, if an adult man “has their life under control and three times a year at some party might want to take some cocaine.”