The only Greenland polling station, located in the Nuuk capital, has not been full on Tuesday, March 11, for the legislative elections likely to sketch a calendar leading to the independence of the territory. Initially scheduled at 8 p.m. (11 p.m. in Paris), its closing schedule has been extended by half an hour to allow all voters, queuing to deposit their bulletin, proof of a high participation rate, confirmed by electoral officials.
A sign, perhaps also, of a Trump effect, after the outings of the American president who covers the Arctic island with an sometimes threatening insistence. The results of the vote, which aims to renew the 31 seats of Inatisartut, the local parliament, are expected in the night.
Convinced that he can seize ” either way “ From the Danish autonomous territory, the American president tried until the last minute to weigh on the elections, causing amazement, rejection and, more rarely, enthusiasm among the 57,000 inhabitants.
Leader of the Inuit Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA, ecologist left), the outgoing Prime Minister of Greenland, Mute Egede – of which it was 38e Anniversary – voted at the start of the morning, without making declarations. “Our country is in the eye of the cyclone”he had launched the day before on Facebook. “The outside world looks closely and we have seen recently how much they try to influence our country”.
Differences on the calendar of possible independence
The campaign has revolved around health, education, economy but also future links with Denmark which continues to exercise the sovereign functions (diplomacy, defense, currency, etc.) on the island. At almost 90 % inits, the Greenlanders deplore having been treated historically as second-class citizens by the former colonial power accused of having stifled their culture, proceeds to forced and withdrawn from children to their families.
A feeling reinforced by the recent broadcast on Danish public television of a documentary – criticized and finally withdrawn – saying that Denmark had drawn enormous profits from the exploitation of a crying mine on the island, however often presented as a financial burden.
Like the vast majority of the population, the main Greenlandic parties all want independence, but they diverge on the calendar. Some people quickly want it as the nationalists of Naleraq, the main opposition force, while the others, like the two components of the outgoing coalition, IA and Siumut (social democrats), condition it to the economic progress of Greenland.
Covered with 80 % ice, the territory is economically dependent on fishing, which represents almost all of its exports, and the annual aid of around 530 million euros paid by Copenhagen, or 20 % of the local gross domestic product. For the most impatient separatists, Greenland could stand on its own feature thanks to its mineral resources. But the mining sector remains ultra-embraced for the time being, weighed down by high operating costs.
“I have enough of her empty threats”
“We are at the dawn of a huge change for the independence of Greenland and the struggle for whom we are as in -such.”told the France-Presse agency, the influencer Qupanuk Olsen, candidate of Naleraq, before slipping her bulletin.
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After having already launched the idea of buying Greenland during his first mandate, drawing an end of inadmissibility from the Danish and Greenlandic authorities, Donald Trump hammers his desire to get his hands-without excluding force-on the territory deemed important to American security. During the night of Sunday to Monday, he again promised, on his Truth Social, Security and Prosperity network to the Greenlanders who would like to be part of the United States.
According to a survey published in January, some 85 % of Greenlanders exclude this possibility. “I have enough of her empty threats”said Anders Martinsen, a 27 -year -old tax worker. “There are many Greenlanders who perceive the United States differently with Trump as president, who are a little less ready to cooperate even if that is what they would like to do at the bottom of them”. “Keeping our country for us is what matters most to me”adds another voter, Lars Fredsbo.
Donald Trump’s statements weighed on the electoral campaign. The nationalists of Naleraq see in the American interest in the island a lever in future negotiations with Denmark. But these outings also sometimes cool the independence ardors and encourage the maintenance of links with Copenhagen, at least for the moment.
“If we become independent, Trump could become too aggressive, that’s what scares me”affirms an voter who identifies himself as Ittukusuk and who judges that “Staying with Denmark is more important than ever”.