{"id":421068,"date":"2025-03-12T12:10:39","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T11:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/03\/12\/elezioni-groenlandia-vittoria-democratico\/"},"modified":"2025-03-12T14:42:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T13:42:36","slug":"surprise-victory-for-center-right-opposition-in-greenland-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/03\/12\/surprise-victory-for-center-right-opposition-in-greenland-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise victory for center-right opposition in Greenland elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels &#8211; In one of the most decisive periods in its history, <strong>Greenland<\/strong> has chosen its representatives in\u00a0the latest <strong>parliamentary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/06\/greenland-elections-in-march-amid-concerns-of-interference-and-invasion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">elections<\/a><\/strong>, confirming\u00a0a clear desire for independence from Denmark, of which it is an\u00a0&#8220;autonomous territory.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As the Greenlandic public broadcaster <a href=\"https:\/\/www.knr.gl\/da\/nyheder\/demokraatit-vinder-valget\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KNR<\/a> reported today (March 12), the vote rewarded the <strong>Democratic Demokraatit<\/strong> party, which, compared to the previous election in 2021 (where it had achieved just 9 percent of the vote), was confirmed as the leading party, with <strong>30 percent<\/strong>, followed by the Nationalist <strong><strong>Naleraq<\/strong><\/strong> party, which also grew, from 12 percent in 2021 to 25 percent this morning. Both parties have been in opposition in the previous legislature and are<strong> <strong>committed to independence.<\/strong><\/strong>\u00a0However, if Naleraq calls for it more quickly and advocates greater cooperation with the United States, the Democrats, led by 33-year-old <strong><strong>Jens-Frederik Nielsen<\/strong>,<\/strong> describe themselves as &#8220;social liberals&#8221; and prefer a more gradual transition.<\/p>\n<p>The results have not\u00a0been formally approved, but 99 percent of the votes have already been counted. &#8220;We did not expect the election to have this outcome,&#8221; Nielsen said of the victory. &#8220;Greenland needs us to remain united at a time of great external interest. We\u00a0need unity, <strong>so <strong>we will negotiate with everyone<\/strong>.&#8221; The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/03\/05\/trump-pours-water-on-the-fire-lets-sign-peace-between-russia-and-ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">threats<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>of annexation by US President<strong> <strong>Donald Trump,<\/strong><\/strong>\u00a0who said he was\u00a0ready to welcome the people of the Danish autonomous territory under his jurisdiction, played a role in the turnout at the polls, which was higher than usual. The local government<strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/04\/world\/europe\/greenland-trump-political-funding.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">banned<\/a> <\/strong>foreign political funding to avoid foreign influence in the elections.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_418098\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 737px;\"><strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36TH3YN.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-418098\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36TH3YN-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"M\u00fate Egede Mette Frederiksen\" width=\"737\" height=\"491\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36TH3YN-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36TH3YN-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36TH3YN-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36TH3YN-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36TH3YN-750x500.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36TH3YN-1140x760.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 737px) 100vw, 737px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/strong><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-418098\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Greenland Prime Minister M\u00fate Egede with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, her party finished fourth -(Rasmussen\/Afp)<\/p>\n<p><\/span>Despite expectations, the vote did not reward the Inuit parties, Atassut and<strong> Siumut. <\/strong>While the former, given as the favorite by projections in recent weeks, got 7.3 percent of the vote, the big loser turned out to be Siumut, which, from being the first party on the Island, suffered a halving compared to 2021, getting only 15 percent of the vote. Party leader and Greenland Prime Minister<strong> <strong>M\u00f9te Egede<\/strong> <\/strong>acknowledged the result and the<strong> <strong>defeat<\/strong>: <\/strong>&#8220;We have the worst result ever. I take full responsibility.&#8221; The dissatisfaction of much of the native Inuit (who make up 90 percent of the population) with the pace of the independence process may have been influential in this reversal.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;\">Being the largest party, Demokraatit now has the right to start negotiations with the other parties to form\u00a0a <strong>new government<\/strong>. Nielsen has already extended his hand to Naleraq, &#8220;We have not excluded them. Our country needs us to stay united.&#8221; Among the hot topics\u00a0Greenland&#8217;s new parliament will face, in addition to the Trump issue and independence, is the central &#8212; and divisive &#8212; issue of using its very rich, untapped<strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/01\/08\/groenlandia-una-terra-ricca-di-materiali-preziosi-che-e-territorio-speciale-dellue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mining <\/a>deposits,\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>which could make separation more sustainable in a country whose economy depends on Danish government subsidies.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>High turnout after Trump&#8217;s threats. Pro-independence parties win: 30 percent of the vote for the Demokraatit Democrats and 25 percent for the nationalist Naleraq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7883,"featured_media":421064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26411,25816,30141,30377,26104],"class_list":["post-421068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-greenland","tag-independence-en","tag-usa-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7883"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421068"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421095,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421068\/revisions\/421095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}