Greenland’s prime minister said voters face a “fateful choice” as the Arctic island prepares to go to the polls in a pivotal election closely watched by Europe and the US.
The vote on Tuesday has attracted global attention after Donald Trump’s repeated assertions about acquiring the autonomous territory, using military and economic force if necessary.
The poll, which takes place against a backdrop of growing calls for independence, is also being closely scrutinised by Denmark, which ruled Greenland as a colony until 1953 and continues to control its foreign and security policy.
Greenland, along with the Faroe Islands, remains part of the Danish kingdom. However, Copenhagen fears that if voters give strong backing to the largest opposition party, Naleraq, a prominent pro-independence voice and supporter of US collaboration, Greenland could instead strengthen its ties with the US.
On Monday the territory’s prime minister and chair of the Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) party, Múte B Egede, accused Trump of being “unpredictable” and said he had failed to treat Greenlanders with respect.
“It is a fateful choice we have,” Egede told Danish broadcaster DR.
“The things that are happening in the world right now worry me quite a lot. That there is a world order that is faltering on many fronts, and perhaps a president in the United States who is very unpredictable in a way that makes people feel insecure,” he said.
“We deserve to be treated with respect, and I don’t think the American president has done that lately since he took office.”
In his speech to Congress last week, Trump said that he would acquire Greenland “one way or the other”. And on Sunday, he attempted to appeal to Greenlanders directly by reiterating his invitation to join the US and pledging to “invest billions of dollars to create new jobs and make you rich”.
However, while many in Nuuk are open to strengthening collaboration with the US, the idea of Greenland being acquired by the Trump administration has been widely rejected.
Trump’s recent remarks were not helping, Egede said. “We need to draw a line in the sand and spend more effort on those countries that show us respect for the future we want to draw,” he added.
Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for natural resources, equality, business and justice and a member of IA, said Trump’s latest comments were seen as “crass and inappropriate”. “It’s the wrong way to do foreign policy if you want to get a closer tie with Greenland,” she added.
Of the six parties running, only Naleraq has promised to hold a snap vote on independence and all parties, except for Atassut, support secession – although with varying degrees of urgency.
Greenland’s longstanding independence movement has gained significant traction in recent years after a series of scandals highlighting Denmark’s racist treatment of Greenlanders – including the IUD scandal, in which 4,500 women and girls were allegedly fitted with contraception without their knowledge, and “parenting competency” tests that have separated many Inuit children from their parents.
With the US administration expressing interest in Greenland’s “incredible natural resources”, chiefly its mineral wealth, Egede’s IA and another party, Siumut, have said they would set up a national mining company to enable Greenland to profit more from its raw materials.
Nathanielsen said that despite the geopolitical drama the issues on voters’ minds were the usual preoccupations such as education and healthcare.
“We are getting asked the exact same questions as usual by voters,” she said. “But on top of that there is, of course, a real concern about what is going on the world stage, especially with regards to Greenland.”
Trump’s promises of interest and money in Greenland have so far been “very vague”, she said. “Right now it is just talk and very unclear what they [the US] actually think and what he [Trump] means by making Greenlanders rich, that’s still to be seen.”
High school student and first-time voter, Aviâja Korneliussen, 18, said: “I am excited but also very nervous because we don’t know how it’s going to affect our communities and we know that the whole world is watching and waiting.”
Korneliussen said she had not yet decided whether to vote for Naleraq, IA or the Democrats. She wanted Greenland to become independent and to have more connection with the Arctic region rather than with Denmark or the Nordics or Europe. But she was unsure when it came to the US.
“I’m a bit conflicted because we know [what] the US has done to their own Indigenous groups and how they can manipulate things to be their way. But I get the idea they want to work together to be more independent from Denmark, so it’s a bit 50/50 for me.”
Trump had been “disrespectful … he looks at us as objects to own” and she did not want Greenland to become the 51st state, she added.
