President Donald Trump’s dream of US control over Greenland may be on hold after this week’s election in the autonomous Danish territory.
During a debate earlier this week, leaders of six parties were asked if they trust Trump.
Five said no.
The one yes, Karl Ingemann of the relatively new Qulleq party, didn’t even win a seat in Parliament after his party flopped with just 1.1% of the vote.
The biggest winner this week was the centre-right Demokraatit Party, which took nearly 30% of the vote.
Its leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has been blunt in addressing Trump’s ambitions for the territory, calling his rhetoric “a threat to our political independence.”
The New York Times said the party was likely to enter a coalition with Inuit Ataqatigiit, a moderate party that came in third in this week’s election with 21.4% of the vote. Its leader is the current prime minister, Múte Egede, who has also dismissed joining the United States.
“I think in the future, we have a lot to offer to cooperate with, but we want to also be clear. We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be a part of US, but we want a strong cooperation together with U.S.,” Egede told Fox News earlier this year.
Both parties favour a gradual approach to the territory’s independence from Denmark.
The second-place party, Naleraq, won nearly a quarter of the vote. Its leader, Pele Broberg, wrote an editorial this week calling for a more rapid independence from Denmark and a pact with the United States but “without becoming a US territory.”
Trump has repeatedly said he wants Greenland to join the United States.
“We need [Greenland] really for international world security, and I think we’re going to get it,” he said during last week’s address to Congress. “One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”
Polls show it’s not a popular notion in Greenland, with 85% of respondents opposed in a January survey.
Trump reportedly floated purchasing the island during his first term in office but didn’t say much about it publicly. Then after he won a second term last year, he called control over the territory an “absolute necessity” and suggested taking it by force if needed.
Trump’s scheme isn’t popular in Denmark, either, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen insisting that the territory “is not for sale.”
Others have been more blunt, with Danish politician Anders Vistisen telling the president he can “fuck off.”