Share and Follow
Key Points
- Turnout in Greenland’s election was higher than usual, election officials said.
- None of the parties won a majority of the 31 seats in parliament.
- Negotiations to form a coalition will be held in the coming days.
Greenland’s pro-business Demokraatit Party surged to victory in a shake-up that could boost United States President Donald Trump’s attempts to tap the island’s mineral wealth, with the victors keen for reforms favouring private enterprise and mining.
The Democrats, which favour gradual independence from Denmark, more than tripled their seats to 10 in the 31-seat parliament and will begin talks to form a coalition.
The strongly pro-independence Naleraq party doubled their seats to eight compared to the previous election, while the ruling coalition lost almost half of its share of the vote.
“People want change,” the Democrats’ leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen told reporters in Nuuk after the final vote count.
“We don’t want independence tomorrow, we want to build a good foundation.”
As voting got underway earlier this week, Nielsen told Sky News he wanted the vote to send “a clear message to him [Donald Trump] that we are not for sale”.
“We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders. And we want our own independence in the future. And we want to build our own country by ourselves, not with his hope,” he said.
Independence became the central campaign theme in Tuesday’s election after and will eventually become part of the US.
At three times the size of Texas, with a population of just 57,000, the Arctic nation contains vast mineral resources, including rare earth minerals critical for high-tech industries, ranging from electric vehicles to missile systems.
Despite gains for rapid independence advocate Naleraq party, Rasmus Leander Nielsen, associate professor at the University of Greenland, said the Democrats were more likely to form a broad coalition with one or both of the outgoing ruling parties — Inuit Ataqatigiit and Siumut — in a show of national unity.
‘Good news for Trump’
In the election campaign, the Democrats’ Nielsen rebuffed Trump’s interest in acquiring Greenland, calling it “a threat to our political independence”.
However, in campaign documents, the party said it would be open to dialogue with the US on commercial interests.
The election result has moved business development and the mining agenda to the centre of Greenlandic politics.
Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, a professor in political science at the University of Copenhagen, said: “If you add up the election result, voters were driven by business development and independence. And that’s good news for Trump.”
“From a White House perspective, this is probably the best result you could hope for.
“If Trump can negotiate an agreement that gives the US assurances that Greenland will not open up its society to Chinese bases, Chinese mines or Russian influence, then it’s sort of under control. And then Trump can … say that he has gained access to minerals.”
Greenland has been a formal part of Denmark since 1953. In 1979 it gained some autonomy, although Denmark still controls foreign affairs, defence and monetary policy and contributes nearly $1 billion annually to the economy.
The island won the right to seek full independence through a referendum in 2009, but so far has chosen not to do so, on concerns over the economy’s ability to be self-sufficient.
A poll in January showed the majority of Greenlanders want independence but are divided as to how fast it should happen.
Denmark, which has seen relations with Greenland worsen in recent years due to revelations of historic wrongdoing by the former colonial ruler, congratulated the Democrats.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement: “The Danish government will await the results of the negotiations that will now take place in Greenland.”
Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the Democrats’ victory signalled a desire for continued cooperation between Greenland and Denmark.
“In difficult times we must stick together,” he told Danish broadcasters DR and TV2.
There was no immediate reaction from the US.
