Donald Trump’s comments about Greenland “pose a danger to our political independence,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen statedthe leader of the Greenlandse Social-Liberal Demokraatit, just before the elections. His party wins the elections that were held on Tuesday – with a lot of preference votes for Nielsen. It is a surprising result, which the party leader also showed himself in Groenlandse Media himself.
Demokraatit is indeed in favor of the independence of Denmark, but wants to implement it very gradually. Historically, the party was always skeptical about independence and gave them more autonomy. In the election program, the party emphasized that it was not about “breaking tires, but about working hard for independence”.
Demokraatit tripled The number of votes: now 29.9 percent of the person entitled to vote, where it was 9.1 percent in 2021. No absolute majority and a coalition will therefore have to be formed. The second party that achieved a huge election profit is the populist party Naleraq. 24.5 percent of the votes went here, which was still 12 percent in 2021. Naleraq is just a radical break with the Danes and for close cooperation with the US, without wanting to become part of it immediately. Jens-Frederik Nielsen, on the other hand, had indicated that Greenland wants to be ‘boss in-house’, but always needs good cooperation. Even after the election results, Nielsen emphasized again: “We don’t want independence tomorrow, but a good basis.”
Loss
The government parties Inuit Ataqatigiit and Siumut both lost a lot. Together they received 36 percent of the votes, while in 2021 they were able to get started with 66.1 percent of the votes. Both are traditionally the largest parties in Greenland, they are both for independence, but different from Naleraq want to implement that process in phases.
For Demokraatit it will be difficult to find a party to form a coalition. After all, Naleraq is completely different in the independence process. A coalition with one of the two government parties is also difficult. Siumut was halved and is now the fourth party with less than 15 percent of the votes, and the socialist Inuit Ataqatigiit also lost a lot. In 2021, this party still had more than 36 percent of voters behind them, and now only 21 percent.
Although the liberals want to achieve economic independence through trade, mining and tourism, just like inuit ataqatigiit, but are for relaxing the rules concerning mining, something that ataqatigiit is against. Demokraatit is also critical of the fishing quota who were adopted by the previous government. Múte Eede already indicated that he was ready to talk to Demokraatit.
The new party Qulleq, of which the party leader said he trusted Trump, only got 1.1 percent of the votes. Atassut – The only party that does not pursue independence, but wants to cope with the ties with Denmark – received a little more votes than last time, but is the only opposition party that does not really cook spon in the defeat of the ruling parties. They received less than half percent and with 7.3 percent of the votes are the fifth party.
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The election result is therefore no reassurance for Denmark. A victory of the traditional parties – in which it was also expected that the current Prime Minister Múte would be re -elected – would have been easier. The fact that the result is a big break with the past shows that Trumps claims are not embraced, but cause unrest on the largest island in the world. Demokraatit may not advocate direct independence, to form a government, discussions will have to be held with Nalaraq. The fact that these two parties have become the largest shows the division in the country about how to deal with Denmark.
The Danes, who are responsible for half of the government budget with a contribution of 500 million euros, are in a bad way in Greenland. The financial compensation is being made about the ‘IuScals scandal’ in which Greenland girls were forced to be contraception for years without the parents’ knowledge. At the beginning of February there was a discussion about the documentary Greenlands white gold In which it was told how Denmark earned billions between 1854 and 1987 by digging Kryolite in Greenland. The Danish public broadcaster withdrew the documentary when a debate arose about the billions, which in turn led to a protest on Greenland.