“Greenland I had already attracted world attention for geopolitical reasons or for the impact of its thaw In climate change. Donald Trump had placed us in 2019 on the global map, also geopolitically“, He explains to El Periódico Kim Falck-Ptersen, Executive Secretary of the Permanent Representation of Greenland in Copenhagen. He refers to the ‘offer’ purchase of the US president in his first term, to which he already responded with a No resounding The Head of the Danish government, the social democrat Mette Frederiksen. The parliamentary elections of March 11 in that autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark They coincide with the Crying of the EU as a whole before Washington’s rupturist course. Trump has passed from the purchase offer of Greenland in his second term not to rule out the use of military force. Something that, on an island of 2.2 million square kilometers, 80% of which under permanent ice, and a population of 57,000 inhabitants, would be a walk for the US superpower. Being a Denmark member of the Takethis military option would place the Atlantic Alliance before an implantable aggression between members committed to defending each other under article 5, the backbone of the organization.
Trump’s interest is not new. But Arctic thawing will facilitate the appropriation of its raw materials, hydrocarbons and the so -called rare earths, as well as the opening of safer and more cheap navigation routes. The Russian, China and the United States cake are played.
The interest in the behavior of Greenlandic voters is unusual. Trump has placed Greenland “on the map”, as Falck-Ptersen says, one of the 17,900 Greenlandes resident in Denmark. He independence He had been rooted on the island for decades. All matches They are from their autonomous parliament. Greenland ceased to be colonia Danish in 1953 and since 2009 his statute contemplates the Right to self -determination. The difference between both matches is at the speed at which you want to move towards that goal. How far Trump’s voracity has accelerated or braking these desire for self -determination It is one of the issues that plan on the elections. 85% of Greenlands do not want to be part of the US.
The Socialist Party Individuals at the bond (IA) of the regional president, Múte B. Egededefends a somewhat slowed road towards independence. Of the second game Forwardhis governing partner has left the proposal to celebrate a referendum In the next legislature. There have already been notable abandonments in the direction of a third game, the most rupturist Naleraq.
“Making decisions about independence is complex. Economic, social and political considerations influence,” says Falck-Pestersen. The phrase of “Greenland is not sold” has become a kind of mantra “. In Copenhagen, the two Greenlands deputies of the Danish Parliament, Aaja Chemnitz, from AI are repeated daily; and Aki-Matilda Høgh-Dam, which has been passed to Naleraq. Geographically, Greenland is closer to the US than from Denmark. But economically it depends on Copenhagen, which contributes a 50% of its annual budgets. The umbilical cord is maintained.
Danish unlissions and abuses to Inuit
“The Inuit have well -known reasons not to love the Danes,” explains Birgir Thor Moller, cultural programmer of the Nordatlantens Brygge, or spring of the North Atlantic, located next to the representation of Greenland. 90% of the Greenlands population is ethnicity inuitabused or despised by Denmark. Exponent of these “reasons” are several films that are projected in their ‘Filmdage’, Nordic Film Festival. Among them, ‘Greenland’s white gold ‘u’ oro blanco Groenlandés’, About the explotación practiced in World War II to some minas of the island, whose minerals were used for the manufacture of parts for 200,000 allied airplanes. Its premiere last February lifted ampoules in Nuuk.
For its part, ‘Inuk Woman City Blues’, by Laila Hansen, reflects the hard life of the Greenlands with a poetic vision. Outside the cinema, the reality is more raw and splashed by scandals that reach until now. In 2022 the Forced sterilizations carried out between 1966 and 1970 in Denmark about 4,500 Greenlands, including girls, which were implanted Intrauterine devices. Likewise, the ‘experiment’ carried out in 1950 in 22 Inuit children, to which he moved to Copenhagen in search of a Greenlandic elite educated in Denmark.
Just a few weeks ago the psychotechnical tests To the Greenlands parents of Denmark, difficult to overcome by the Inuit for their cultural differences. Some 400 children had finished in recent years from their parents, considered ‘unpleasant’ and welcomed by Danish families. The Inuit are stigmatized In Denmark. Which does not prevent the progressive depopulation of Greenland to Danish territory, with alarming consequences for a almost uninhabited island.
Who will defend Greenland?
He regional regime of Greenland, which is not part of the EU, is broad. But it does not include Neither foreign policy nor defense. The presence of Two deputies Greenlands in folketing, or Denmark Parliament, is almost symbolic. The island’s defense corresponds to the Army of Denmark, with a national contingent of 16,700 soldiers and 12,000 reservists.
Copenhagen has reinforced its arctic operations, with Inspection ships, patrolled, Airplanes, helicopter and even sleds Dog thrown. The coordination corresponds to the Arctic Command, in Nuuk, with a hundred troops, plus another 50 distributed between this autonomous territory and the Faroe Islands. For two years he has received Danish recruits for his military instruction at the base of Kangerlussuaq.
It is a discreet and capabilities presence-no pretensions-to confront the US by force. From Copenhagen, Prime Minister Frederiksen committed herself when she opened the year to reinforce the Defense of the Arctic. A figure of 2,000 million euros is considered, which will include three ships equipped for the region, drones and satellite observation. This announcement followed in February an extraordinary plan that will rise in defense spending 3.7% of GDP. Already in March, and with Europe triggered to the rearme, Frederiksen has positioned himself among the partners interested in the Emmanuel Macron nuclear umbrella.
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