Dramatic and unexpected election results in Greenland saw long-governing legacy parties kicked out of power and more right-wing, pro-American politicians set to dominate parliament for the first time.
The provisional results for the Greenlandic elections held on Tuesday show a historic result not forecast by pollsters, with the longstanding political establishment parties punished and relegated to third and fourth positions, respectively.
The election comes amid intense discussion of Greenland’s potential independence domestically and global attention over U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated overtures to the country to become part of the United States. As things stand, Greenland is now a region of its former colonial master Denmark, and as well as being divided between left and right, its politics are also split into pro- and anti-independence camps.
The present Greenland government is a coalition of the largest party, the left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit, and the second-largest, the centre-left Siumut. Both parties are pro-independence but not especially friendly to America and certainly not to Donald Trump. Voters punished both parties, which have dominated Greenland politics since the 1970s, yesterday, falling from 12 seats to five and from ten to four, respectively.
Should they leave power now, which seems all but certain, it would be the first time in Greenland’s modern history that it hasn’t been governed by either Inuit Ataqatigiit or Siumut.