Greenland today to the vote, between ambitions of independence and the shadow of Trump

Independence, yes, but when? Today the Greenlanders will vote for the legislative elections, a fundamental moment to establish when Break the ties with Denmark the current protective power, without falling into Donald Trump’s clutches. The insistence, sometimes threatening, of the American president in wanting to take possession of Greenland has given impulse to the independence aspirations of the 57,000 inhabitants of the territory, many of whom say they do not want to be Danish or American, but Greenish.

“Donald Trump has in a certain sense relaunching the question of independence”, explains the Polytologist Maria Ackren of the University of Greenland “this is not a novelty for the Greenlandersis, but now it provides the Greenlandic decision makers and politicians for a stimulus for To achieve perhaps objectives that until now were not possibleI “. The question has occupied an important place in the election campaign, including issues such as education, social affairs, fishing (which constitutes 90% of the exports of the island) and tourism.

Modernization

Almost all political parties would like the vast frozen territory, 50 times larger than Denmark but 100 times less populated, it flown alone. The numerous cranes that stand out above Nuuk, the capitaltestify to a rapid modernization that made a part of the population vulnerable, in large majority inuit, dedicated to hunting and fishing. Visible to the naked eye, social misery is also found in statistics: a rate of suicides among the highest in the world, a number of abortions higher than that of births, a life expectancy of less than 70 years for men. Although the desire for independence is widely shared, the political parties that compete for the 31 seats of Parliament do not agree on the times.

Among the most impatient, the Naleraq nationalist party (opposition), very visible during the campaign, asks that the independence process starts as soon as possible. In the previous elections of 2021 he had obtained 12% of the votes. “The interest we are finding, not only in the United States But even in the rest of the world, it is in our favor “, says Juno Berthelsen, one of the top candidates” we can venture an estimate: this will warn in one or two electoral cycles – of four years each – but it will depend on how the negotiations between Greenland and Denmark will go “.

The independence program

Colonized by the Danes more than three centuries agothe Arctic island obtained autonomy in 1979, but the functions of sovereignty (foreign affairs, defense) still compete in Copenhagen. 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. The two components of the outgoing coalition, inuit ataqatigit (ia, the left green party of the Prime Minister Mute Aegede) and Siumut (the Social Democratic Party), are less in a hurry, but there may be internal divisions.

They ask that the territory will first reach a certain economic sustainability, given that Annual aid of approximately 530 million of euros paid by Copenhagen represent a fifth of his GDP. “The discussions on independence are still on the table. This is the final goal for many of us in Greenland, but it will take 10, 20 years or more,” says Aaja Chemnitz, a member of the AI ​​and one of the two representatives of Greenland in the Danish parliament “it is important to speak of the economic development of Greenland and how to make it much more sustainable”. The head of Siumut, Erik Jensen, outgoing minister of finance, is annoyed by the fact that the question of independence has eclipsed, at least in the foreign and Danish media, those related to the daily life of people.

“Independence is also an important aspect of our program, but here in Greenland everyone speaks of health, schools and nursery schools,” he says. In the windy streets of Nuuk, the inhabitants oscillate between the desire for evasion and economic realism: the exploitation of the island’s mining resources, often presented as a new financial launching pad, is still in the embryonic phase