There is a lot of nonsense written today about the result of the election in Greenland 🇬🇱yesterday. Trumpers are claiming that Greenland will now get a more pro-Trump government.
That is not the case. Here are some insights.
1/x 🧵
That is not the case. Here are some insights.
1/x 🧵
First of all, take off your American glasses. The Democrats who won the election have nothing to do with the American party, and the election was not for or against becoming part of the USA for the simple reason that nobody wants to.
Just to elaborate on this point: When I say nobody wants to, I mean it literally. None of the candidates who ran for the Greenlandic parlament yesterday have expressed any interest in joining the US. And there are no pro-trump parties in Greenland.
The winning party (30% of the votes) was the Democrats who is a free-market center right party that is not busy making Greenland independent from Denmark but wants to strengthen the economy first. Their campaign focused on fishing laws and strengthening tourism.
The party Naleraq came second with 24,5% of the votes. This is a pretty extreme etno-nationalist party that wants Denmark out as soon as possible and wants Greenland to be for Inuits.
In their campaign, Naleraq promised voters that there would be no negative consequences of complete and immediate independence from Denmark and that Denmark would, of course, continue to subsidise Greenland like today even if Denmark was stripped of all rights in Greenland.
This went down well with voters in some of the less educated and non-Danish speaking parts of Greenland whereas people in the capital, Nuuk, did not vote for it.
Naleraq doubled in size but you should be careful to attribute this only to a stronger desire for immediate independence. It was largely driven by a couple of popular pro-independence politicians with many personal votes who switched from Siumut to Naleraq.
The two old established parties, Inuit Ataqatigiit and Siumut, both had terrible results. The voters definitely seemed to want new politicans.
The only party that says that they do not dream of independence from Denmark (ever), Atassut, grew marginally but remains small.
The only party that says that they do not dream of independence from Denmark (ever), Atassut, grew marginally but remains small.
Most observers are guessing that a new government will be formed with the Democrats as the leader and IA and maybe Atassut joining the government. (Maybe even Siumut). Naleraq is not expected to get much influence.
Most likely this means a continuation of the strategy of working for independence from Denmark in the long term by strengthening Greenland's level of education and its econonmy and hoping to become strong enough for it one day. But it will not be rushed and immediate.
The Democrats will perhaps also in the short term ask for more independence while Greenland stays part of Denmark. This could include heading Denmark's diplomacy in the Arctic and taking responsibility of more tasks in Greenland.
It is also likely that they will seek more foreign investments in Greenland's businesses including tourism and perhaps mining.
Joining the US remains completely out of the question and can only be achieved if the USA invades militarily. Which noone thinks will happen.
(I wish Greenland the best of luck in forming a strong new government and please do correct me if I got any of the above wrong).
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