Thousands of Danes and Greenlanders took to the streets this Saturday to protest against the annexation of Greenland by the United States. The demonstrations, in several cities in the country and in Nuuk, the capital of the autonomous Arctic territory, demonstrate the shift in Danish public opinion, historically pro-American, after Donald Trump has redoubled the pressure to take over this island integrated into the Kingdom of Denmark. 85% of Greenlanders oppose the US president’s plans, according to a poll.
Denmark has been, since the end of World War II, one of Washington’s most loyal allies in Europe. He has participated in the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where dozens of Danish soldiers died. Now he discovers to his shock that the power he believed to be his protector and friend is contemplating using military force against him. Greenlanders are overwhelmingly pro-independence, but their leaders have stated that if they have to choose between Washington and Copenhagen, they would opt for Copenhagen.
About 15,000 people participated in the demonstration in Copenhagen, the capital, according to the Danish press. Carrying Danish and Greenlandic flags, they marched from City Hall Square to the US embassy. Some carried signs that read slogans in English such as Greenland is not for sale (Greenland is not for sale), or Make America Go Away (Let America go). These acronyms coincide with those of MAGA, Make America Great Againthe Trumpian slogan that gives its name to his movement.
He writes that in Copenhagen “people are packed together like sardines in a can and the atmosphere is very emotional.” “Many have tears in their eyes, others hug each other in silence. From time to time screams like Fuck Trump (Fuck Trump).” Slogans against the United States are very rare in Denmark and reflect the turn that this moment represents in the relationship. The protests, at the same time, show the sentimental rapprochement that Trump has fostered between Danes and Greenlanders, a distant and complicated relationship of dependence of Nuuk on Copenhagen and past grievances and abuses.
“We are sending a message to the world: everyone must wake up,” said Julie Rademacher, president of Uagut, an organization for Greenlanders in Denmark, in statements reported by the Reuters agency. He added: “Greenland and Greenlanders have unwittingly become the front lines of the fight for democracy and human rights.”
as he and his team intensified the rhetoric. “To control a territory, you must be able to defend it, improve it and inhabit it. Denmark has failed in each of these tasks,” White House adviser Stephen Miller said on Fox News. “And now they want us to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to defend this territory with 100% of the costs borne by the United States and, in the meantime, for it to belong 100% to Denmark.”
The demonstrations culminate a week in which Denmark and Greenland have sought, without success, a way out of the crisis. The Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers, Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Vivian Motzfeldt, met on Wednesday with the vice president, JD Vance, and secretary of state, Marco Rubio, but everything ended with contradictory versions about what had been agreed. Rasmussen and Motzfeldt explained that a joint working group would be formed to seek an agreement. The White House said the task force’s mission was to “maintain a technical dialogue on the Greenland acquisition.”
Trump wants the annexation of the island to guarantee the security of the United States in the face of threats in the Arctic. Denmark, which this week launched military exercises in Greenland along with some European partners, believes that the current bilateral agreement allows the Americans to respond to these concerns.
“Americans are welcome without wanting to invest more in Greenland. They are welcome to send more soldiers and expand military bases in Greenland. They are welcome to demand a more robust NATO presence in Greenland,” wrote on social media the Danish Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance, one of the most pro-American voices in one of the most pro-American countries. “But they are not welcome to annex Greenland. We cannot accept this under any circumstances.”
