by Niklas Zenius Jespersen in Denmark
The election in Greenland saw a historic right-turn. The island has been a leftist political country since home rule was established with agreement with Denmark, but this election saw a victory for the opposition parties, especially the social-liberal right-wing party Demokratiit (Democrats). The second victorious party was the Naleraq party, formed as a right-wing split from the social democratic Siumut. While Naleraq did in the end come partially out against Trump, it is widely seen as the most Trump-positive party (apart from a very small one that didn’t get anyone elected).
Naleraq is a ethno-nationalist inuit party that wants to limit voting rights based on ethnicity. Like almost all parties, they want independence, but want it more rapidly, no matter what the economic consequences. It seems that they hope to use Trump’s interest in getting Greenland “one way or another” to further the goal of full independence from Denmark, which currently has Foreign and Defence responsibilities for Greenland. They are trying to ride the tiger towards independence, hoping not to get eaten on the way.
This party includes politicians like Kuno Fencker, who openly cooperates with Trump and his representatives in Greenland. On the right-left spectrum, Naleraq is in a kind of special state of its own, with some socially progressive policies, but in general, it is moving from being a right-wing workers’ party, towards being a capitalist party.
Nonetheless, overall, the broader election result once again showed a rejection of Trump’s aggressive intentions, as well as even broader support for moving in the direction of some form of independence from Denmark.
On the broader left, there saw a general decline in the vote and in the number elected. The left-wing government of Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) and Siumut clearly lost and ended in third and fourth places. Siumut, originally a socialist independence movement, later to become social democratic, lost the most. Having been the largest or second largest party since the 1970s, it is now virtually demolished.
For IA, a left-socialist and multinational, inclusive, independence party, it was the second time they had the post of prime minister, and just as last time, they lost it after only one term in office. Without going too far into Greenlandic politics at this time, the basic reason is that every time IA gains power, it tends to compromise on some of their socialist principles and they therefore lose support. They may have implemented some good reforms, but the lack of a clear socialist programme while in power, creates inevitable problems for them.
For example, it seems that one of the issues that determined the election was a new fishing policy implemented by IA and Siumut. Fishing is the primary economic sector, and the new policy was going to limit how much fish could be caught, to promote a better ecological balance to support the fish population. It might be a sound policy, but it has significant economic consequences for workers in what is still a relatively poor country.
The economic consequences of the new law could have been alleviated through investments in industrial capability. At the moment, Greenland exports primarily non-processed fish and shrimps, so that most of the value created and profit from fishing is made in Denmark where fish are processed before being sold to consumers and other countries.
If the Greenland government invested significantly in the fishing industry, it would have been possible to both limit the number of fish being caught and still increase the value and profit created for Greenland. Instead, too much focus was laid on promoting private companies and securing foreign private investments, especially in mining and both of these policies failed.
Once again, this election should form a warning against left-wing parties compromising on their principles and abandoning socialist policies when they get into power.
[Feature picture from Wikimedia Commons, here]
