Never as in this period the legislative elections in Greenland are in the spotlight all over the world. Also because of the recent expansionist aims of the US president Donald Trump, the elections are described by local and international newspapers as the most important in the history of the island. The approximately 40 thousand citizens and towns go to the polls today for the renewal of the 31 seats of Illiisartut, the National Parliament.
Trump wants to get his hands on the rare lands of Greenland
The crucial vote between social issues and the desire for independence
The election campaign is mainly revolved around the request for independence. The question has occupied an important place in the polls to the polls, however leaving the right space to internal politics such as education, social affairs, fishing (which constitutes 90 percent of the exports of the island) and tourism. Almost all political parties would like the vast frozen territory, 50 times larger than Denmark but 100 times less populated, it flown alone. The insistence, sometimes threatening, of the American president in wanting to take possession of Greenland has given impulse to the independence aspirations of the 57 thousand inhabitants of the territory, many of whom claim to be not wanted to be Danish or American, but Greenish. Although the desire for independence remains widely shared, the political parties that compete for the 31 seats of Parliament do not agree on the times.
Thanks to a 2009 law, the Greenlanders can independently start the independence process, which provides for the negotiation of an agreement with Denmark, which must then be approved by referendum in Greenland and through a vote in the Danish parliament. Many Greenlanders want to get rid of Danish control, which still manages monetary policy, defense and foreign affairs. However, it is not clear how and when this could happen, considering that Copenhagen covers more than half of the Greenland budget, financing essential services such as health, education and employment.
Favored the outgoing coalition that pushes for independence
Among the five main candidate parties, the favorite is inuit ataqatigit (Inuit community), an ecological left independence, with 31 percent of the consents. Inuit ataqatigit won the last elections in 2021, and expresses the current Greenland Prime Minister, Múte Bourup Eugede, head of a coalition with Siumut’s Social Democrats. In his speech at the beginning of the year, Aegede had announced that he wanted to convene a referendum on independence together with the legislative elections, but then took a step back: he postponed the issue to the next legislature, which will last until 2029.
Trump courts Greenland: “We will make you rich and protect you”
It seems that the two members of the outgoing coalition, unlike the Naleraq nationalist party to oppose the government, are less in a hurry. Inuit Atqatigit and Siumut ask that the territory first reaches a certain economic sustainability, given that the annual aid of approximately 530 million euros provided by Copenhagen represent a fifth of its GDP. For this reason, political debates have focused much more on local issues: from the lack of social services in the communities farthest from the capital to the problems inherent in the fishing industry that complains of an internal labor scarcity. Even the proposal of the left of Inuit Atqatigit to establish a state agency for the management and extraction of mining resources, in fact by nationalizing the entire extractive supply chain, has not aroused particular clamor or consent.
The independence movements focus on the natural resources of the island to finance a future sovereign state: rare lands hidden under the ice and oil deposits still to be exploited. However, to develop these projects, foreign investments are needed, and the node remains under what conditions Greenland should make agreements with foreign powers.
The comeback of the opposition parties in favor of ties with Trump
Naleraq, the main opposition party in Greenland, is given fourth in the polls. Strongly nationalist, he supports the immediate and unilateral secession from Denmark and is open to collaborations with the United States. Among his candidates Qupanuk Olsen, influencer with 1.5 million followers, who called Trump’s “interest” positive for Greenland, considering him an accelerator of independence. In fifth place in the polls there is Atassut, the last unionist and center -right party, who while asking for more autonomies considers unrealistic independence in the short term.
The party underlines the practical problems of a secession, including military defense guaranteed by Denmark and annual grants of over 500 million euros, fundamental for the welfare of the island. However, the surveys also indicate a growth of opposition parties, including the populists of Centristi di Naleraq, independence but in favor of closer ties with Washington.
Trump’s ambitions on the annexation of the island
The American president continues to reiterate that he wants to take control of Greenland “in one way or another”, despite being a largely inhospitable territory and whose surface is 80 percent frozen. The umpteenth bordered arrived in her speech at the congress, then relaunched in a post on Truth a few hours after the vote. “We are ready to invest billions of dollars to create new jobs and make them rich. And, if they want it, we will welcome them to the largest nation in the world: the United States of America,” wrote President Trump.
The race to the Arctic began: so China and Russia take the sea free from ice
Already during his first term, Trump had presented an official offer to Denmark to buy Greenland, underlining the strategic importance of the island on which since 1950 the United States maintains the spatial base of Pituffikik, in the north-west. But today as then the responses of Copenhagen and Nuuk were clear: “The island is not on sale”.
