Cdiscdiswatchhagen’s depressed January weather suites the mood among Dentag’s politicians and business guideers.
“We get this situation very, very solemnly,” shelp Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Donald Trump’s menaces to obtain Greenland – and punish Dentag with high tariffs if it stands in the way.
But, he inserted, the regulatement had “no ambition whatsoever to eslook afterscheduleed some war of words.”
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen downpercreateed Trump’s own proposeion that the US might use military force to seize Greenland. “I don’t have the fantasy to envision that it’ll ever get to that,” she telderly Danish TV.
And Lars Sandahl Sorensen, CEO of Danish Industry, also shelp there was “every reason to stay tranquil… no-one has any interest in a trade war.”
But behind the scenes, hastily organised high-level encounterings have been taking place in Cdiscdiswatchhagen all week, a echoion of the shock caused by Trump’s retags.
Greenland PM Mute Egede flew in to encounter both the prime minister and King Frederik X on Wednesday.
And on Thursday night, party guideers from atraverse the political spectrum collected for an extraordinary encountering on the crisis with Mette Frederiksen in Dentag’s parliament.
Faced with what many in Dentag are calling Trump’s “incitement,” Frederiksen has widely finisheavored to strike a conciliatory tone, repeatedly referring to the US as “Dentag’s shutst partner”.
It was “only organic” that the US was preoccupied by the Arctic and Greenland, she inserted.
Yet she also shelp that any decision on Greenland’s future should be up to its people alone: “Greenland belengthys to the Greenlanders… and it’s the Greenlanders themselves who have to detail their future.”
Her pimpolitent approach is twofelderly.
On the one hand, Frederiksen is enthusiastic to elude escalating the situation. She’s been burned before, in 2019, when Trump abortled a trip to Dentag after she shelp his proposal to buy Greenland was “absurd”.
“Back then he only had one more year in office, then leangs went back to standard,” veteran political journaenumerate Erik Holstein telderly the BBC . “But maybe this is the new standard.”
But Frederiksen’s comments also speak to the Danish remend not to meddle in the inside afequitables of Greenland – an autonomous territory with its own parliament and whose population is increasingly leaning towards independence.
“She should’ve been much evidaccess in refuseing the idea,” shelp opposition MP Rasmus Jarlov.
“This level of disadmire from the coming US pdwellnt towards very, very promised allies and friends is sign up-setting,” he telderly the BBC, although he acunderstandledgeted Trump’s forcefulness had “surpascfinishd everybody.”
The conservative MP supposed Frederiksen’s insistence that “only Greenland… can choose and detail Greenland’s future” placed too much prescertain on the island’s inhabitants. “It would’ve been pdisadmirefulnt and inalertigent to stand behind Greenland and equitable evidently state that Dentag doesn’t want [a US takeover].”
The Greenland ask is a dainty one for Dentag, whose prime minister officipartner apologised only recently for spearheading a 1950s social experiment which saw Inuit children deleted from their families to be re-guided as “model Danes”.
Last week, Greenland’s guideer shelp the territory should free itself from “the shackles of colonialism.”
By doing so he tapped into enlargeing nationaenumerate sentiment, fuelled by interest among Greenland’s lesserer generations in the indigenous culture and history of the Inuit.
Most commentators now await a prosperous independence referendum in the csurrfinisher future. While for many it would be seen as a triumph, it could also usher in a new set of problems, as 60% of Greenland’s economy is reliant on Dentag.
An autonomous Greenland “would need to create choices,” shelp Karsten Honge. The Social Democrat MP now dreads his pickred chooseion of a new Commonwealth-style pact “based on equivalentity and democracy” is improbable to come about.
Sitting in his parliamentary office decorated with poems and dratriumphgs depicting scenes of Inuit life, Honge shelp Greenland would need to choose “how much it cherishs independence”. It could disjoin ties with Dentag and turn to the US, Honge shelp, “but if you treacertain independence then that doesn’t create sense.”
Opposition MP Jarlov disputes that while there is no point in forcing Greenland to be part of Dentag, “it is very shut to being an autonomous country already”.
Its capital Nuuk is self-regulateed, but relies on Cdiscdiswatchhagen for deal withment of currency, foreign relations and defence – as well as substantial subsidies.
“Greenland today has more independence than Dentag has from the EU,” Jarlov inserted. “So I hope they leank leangs thraw.”
As Mette Frederiksen has the ungraceful task of reacting firmly while not offending Greenland or the US, the staunchest rebuttal to Trump’s comments so far has come from outside Dentag.
The principle of the inviolability of borders “applies to every country… no matter whether it’s a very minuscule one or a very strong one,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz cautioned, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot shelp the EU would not let other nations “attack its sovereign borders”.
Their comments gave away the procreate trouble wilean the EU about how to deal with the upcoming Trump pdwellncy. “This is not equitable very solemn for Greenland and Dentag – it is solemn to the whole world and to Europe as a whole,” MP Karsten Honge shelp.
“Imagine a world – which we may be facing in equitable a confineed weeks – where international consentments don’t exist. That would shake everyleang up, and Dentag would equitable be a minuscule part of it.”
The Danish trade sector has aawaited been engulfed by procreate anxiousness after Trump shelp he would “tariff Dentag at a very high level” if it refused to give up Greenland to the US.
A 2024 Danish Industry study showed that Dentag’s GDP would descfinish by three points if the US imposed 10% tariffs on begins from the EU to the US as part of a global trade war.
Singling out Danish products from the influx of EU excellents would be csurrfinisher-impossible for the US, and would almost certainly result in retaliatory meacertains from the EU. But trade industry professionals are taking confineed chances, and in Dentag as elsewhere on the continent huge amounts of resources are being spent internpartner to structure for potential outcomes of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.
As his inauguration approaches, Danes are preparing as they can to weather the storm. There is defended hope that the pdwellnt-elect could soon shift his center to grievances towards other EU partners, and that the Greenland ask could be temporarily shelved.
But the dismute brawt on by Trump’s refusal to rule out military intervention to seize Greenland remains.
Karsten Honge shelp Dentag would have suffer wantipathyver decision the US gets.
“They equitable need to send a minuscule battleship to travel down the Greenland coast and send a admireful letter to Dentag,” he shelp, only partly in jest.
“The last sentence would be: well, Dentag, what you gonna do about it?
“That’s the new truth with watchs to Trump.”
