It was an election that was fought on the worldwide stage with sporadic commentary from Donald Trump. However in the long run, it was home points that drove Greenlanders to the polls to vote overwhelmingly for change.
Ever since his son, Donald Trump Jr, touched down in a Trump-branded airplane at Nuuk’s new airport in January, the US president has made no secret of his renewed need to achieve management of the Arctic island, refusing to rule out financial or army drive to take action.
Throughout his tackle to Congress, Trump mentioned that he would purchase Greenland, a part of the dominion of Denmark, “by hook or by crook”. And only a day earlier than the vote, he promised the island’s folks that the US was able to “make you wealthy”.
However Greenland’s election was fought and gained on home points equivalent to enterprise, fisheries, pensions, folks’s livelihoods and healthcare.
Naleraq, essentially the most US- and Trump-friendly celebration, did effectively, coming second total. But it surely was the centre-right Democrats, led by Jens Frederik Nielsen, who changed former prime minister Múte B Egede’s Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) because the celebration with essentially the most seats – and thus now have the chance to kind a coalition authorities.
Naleraq advocates collaboration with the US within the pursuit of fast independence from Denmark (which dominated Greenland as a colony till 1953 and nonetheless controls its overseas and safety coverage).
Nielsen favours a a lot slower transition, saying Greenland “will need to have a peaceful course”, and “should first construct the muse” for achievement as an unbiased nation.
What course the brand new authorities takes on points that might have worldwide ramifications will rely upon how the coalition is shaped. Talks may go on for weeks, and whereas Nielsen has indicated he’s open to talks with Naleraq, he has not dominated out working with different events.
“Greenland wants us to face collectively,” Nielsen informed the territory’s public broadcaster, KNR. “That would be the place to begin for our negotiations. Many massive issues are occurring on a world scale, and it’s important that we have now one voice and one widespread vote.”
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The Naleraq chief, Pele Broberg, informed the Guardian the election was much less a vote for or in opposition to independence and extra about “worry for or in opposition to the US”, due to the best way the vote was framed in worldwide media.
Trump may now promote the consequence as a victory, as a result of it’s a rejection of the established order. However the tone of US-Greenland relations could rely upon whether or not Naleraq finally ends up inside or exterior the coalition.
Tom Dans, Trump’s former Arctic commissioner and an investor with pursuits in Greenland, congratulated Nielsen on his victory but in addition made a degree of praising Naleraq as “solely barely edged out”. He informed the Guardian that Broberg’s celebration “continues to be a information level in direction of Greenlandic self-determination and independence”.
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