Clear election winners are two parties with different views on the path to independence for Greenland.
The liberal party Demokraatit – also called the Democrats – becomes the largest with 29.9 percent of the votes. The party advocates a more cautious approach to independence than the party that becomes the second largest, Naleraq, with 24.5 percent of the votes.
It turns everything upside down in Greenlandic politics. It will take some time for Greenland to get used to the new reality, says Ask Rostrup, political analyst at Danish TV2.
The governing parties Inuit Ataqatigiit and Siumut fall significantly and drop to become the third and fourth largest parties.
Different Directions
Voters have thus marked against the two parties that have built Greenlandic self-government over 40 years, notes Ulrik Pram Gad, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies.
It's two parties that are going back quite strongly and the dissatisfaction has moved in two different directions, he says to Ritzau, referring to the election winners' views on how quickly Greenland should achieve independence.
At Demokraatit's election party, the joy was great when it became clear that the party was the election's big winner.
It's perfect. It brings success to Greenland, says Bo Martinsen, candidate for the party, to Danish media.
The Democrats want, like almost all parties in Greenland, to see independence from Denmark, but they want to build "an economically sustainable foundation before it can become a reality", party leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen tells Sveriges Radio Ekot.
"Talk to Everyone"
From Demokraatit's side, we are open to talking to all parties and seeking cooperation. Especially considering what is happening abroad, says the party leader in a TV debate with the Greenlandic public service company KNR.
Denmark's Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen (V) thinks it's difficult to predict what the election result will mean.
The future relationship with Greenland takes its starting point in what the Greenlandic government wants. It remains to be seen what government program the new government will be built on, he says to DR.
The USA should take control of Greenland, believes Donald Trump, and on January 7, he declared that he does not rule out a military intervention to gain control over the island.
The reason is the coveted natural resources, in combination with new trade routes that open up due to melting ice and Greenland's strategic location.
Trump claims that he needs the island for the USA's national security. Already during his previous presidential period, he expressed a desire to buy Greenland, which was completely rejected by Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S).
