In Trump's shadow, Greenland votes for a new government

Boston Globe

12-03-2025

The winner was Demokraatit, a party that has been critical of Trump's rhetoric. It has taken a moderate stance on the subject of independence from Denmark, which most Greenland politicians support as a long-term goal.
The second most popular party, Naleraq, however, has pushed hard for independence as soon as possible, which some of its members have said would enable Greenland to associate more freely with other countries, including the United States. One of Naleraq's most prominent figures is very pro-Trump and attended the American president's inauguration.
Greenlanders are clearly divided, experts said, on how to handle this crossroads.
Advertisement
'What has become clear during the election — and what Denmark must now recognize — is that across the political spectrum, there is dissatisfaction with the current constitutional arrangement,' said Ulrik Pram Gad, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen. 'Regardless of the outcome, there will be calls for renegotiating the structure of the kingdom of Denmark.'
Denmark colonized Greenland more than 300 years ago, and while the island is now considered a semiautonomous territory, Denmark still controls foreign policy, defense, and other aspects of its governance. Demokraatit, which won just less than 30 percent of the vote, ahead of Naleraq's 24.5 percent, has consistently argued that independence must not imperil economic and social stability. There are only 56,000 people living on the island, and the difference between first and second place in this election was around 1,500 votes.
Lars Trier Mogensen, a political analyst based in Copenhagen, said he did not expect any drastic changes in Greenland's geopolitical situation, at least for now.
'The new Greenlandic government is unlikely to rush into major shifts in US relations anytime soon,' he said.
Advertisement
In interviews with voters these past few weeks and during town hall events with candidates, local issues such as health care, schools, and fishing (the island's main industry) kept coming up. Some observers said the two leading parties were clearer about what needs to be changed.
For example, they both campaigned on revamping the fisheries law, said Svend Hardenberg, a mining executive and, more recently, a star in a popular Danish Netflix series that, serendipitously, had a whole season about Greenland.
"The main direction is independence," he said. "I think that can go quicker than most people expect."
Greenland boasts a trove of minerals and is strategically located near increasingly important Arctic Ocean shipping lanes. Trump, in an address to Congress last week, said, 'I think we're going to get it — one way or the other, we're going to get it.'
On Sunday, two days before the election, in a social media post, he made a direct pitch to Greenlanders: 'We are ready to INVEST BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to create new jobs and MAKE YOU RICH.'
But Greenlanders have been clear that despite Trump's entreaties, they don't want to be absorbed by the United States, with polls showing that at least 85 percent oppose the idea.
'We don't want to be Americans. No, we don't want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders. And we want our own independence in the future,' Demokraatit leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen told Sky News after the election.
Still, Kuno Fencker of Naleraq, who is Greenland's most pro-Trump politician, got far more votes than he did in the last election, in 2021. Fencker attended Trump's inauguration and took a tour of the West Wing, and his push for stronger ties with the United States drew fierce criticism from his rivals, some of whom labeled him a traitor. In a recent podcast, Fencker argued that Trump had been 'misunderstood.'
Advertisement
Naleraq's second-place finish means that pro-independence voices will remain influential, and the party could push for greater engagement with Washington. But Fencker's enthusiasm for Trump might have turned off some voters, analysts said.
'Naleraq positioned itself in a way that made it seem like a vote for them would bring Trump too close,' Gad said.
Still, Naleraq doubled its seats from four to eight in Greenland's 31-seat parliament. At an election night party on the outskirts of Nuuk, the capital, party members and supporters embraced, danced, and cheered.
Analysts predicted that Demokraatit was likely to form a governing coalition with the more moderate Inuit Ataqatigiit party, or IA, which finished third, with 21.4 percent of the vote. Inuit Ataqatigiit, the dominant party in the outgoing governing coalition, embraced a go-slow approach to breaking off from Denmark.
Greenland, the world's biggest island, is home to a mostly Inuit population that Denmark sidelined during the colonial era. Over time, demands for self-rule have led to greater autonomy and a Greenlandic government.