I wonder that too. Doesn't a trip like this involve a lot of planning? Aren't these arranged months ahead of time?
Yes and no.
As I understand it Mary was asked some time back whether she would go.
From that point the schedule would have been involved the court in regards to what a member of DRF can and cannot do. The security assessment also go up some notches.
In the meantime Mary's normal schedule goes on.
Again until pretty late, it wasn't even certain the minister himself would go. In fact there are indications that the Minsster for Development pressed for it. Because the PM would have known for some time that it was likely he would call a general election about this time, depending on all sorts of domestic political details - and opinion polls....
That is something he would only discuss among the very must senior ministers. The Minister for Development is
not among them. That I'm willing to state with 95% certainly.
The security situation is of course assessed until the very last moment. For that matter Mary's visit to the refugee camp can still be cancelled. - At least one part of the visit
was cancelled for security reasons.
Now combined with the fact that a minister heading a "business ministry" due to a general election is pretty impotent, it seems very likely to me that the PM decided to give his OK quite late, after consultations with the Foreign Minister and FET and in this case to a lesser degree PET.
Mary may not have known when she woke up onboard Dannebrog Thursday morning, whether she would go or not. Then she got a phone call: "We're going". And
that's what I think happened.
ADDED: Come to think of it it lends credit to the account in BB, that Mary shed a tear when she let go of the twins when Dannebrog sailed into Hirtshals.
And it also gives Frederik's kiss in the aquarium a deeper meaning. He's proud of his Mary - and he admires her.