Greenland’s pro-business Demokraatit Party surged to victory in a shake-up that could boost U.S. 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 Inatsisartut parliament, according to results released on Wednesday, and will begin talks to form a coalition.
The strongly pro-independence Naleraq doubled their seats to eight from the prior 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.”
Independence became the central campaign theme in Tuesday’s election after Trump’s repeated insistence that the semi-autonomous Danish territory is vital to U.S. national security and will eventually become part of the United States.
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, 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 U.S. on commercial interests.
The election result has moved business development and the mining agenda to the centre of Greenlandic politics.
“If you add up the election result, voters were driven by business development and independence. And that’s good news for Trump,” said Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, a professor in political science at the University of Copenhagen. “From a White House perspective, this is probably the best result you could hope for.”
“If Trump can negotiate an agreement that gives the U.S. 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 Copenhagen 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.
“The Danish government will await the results of the negotiations that will now take place in Greenland,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the Democrat’s victory signalled a desire for continued cooperation between Nuuk and Copenhagen. “In difficult times we must stick together,” he told Danish broadcasters DR and TV2.
There was no immediate reaction from Washington.
