Greenland’s Democrats will announce a four-party coalition government on Friday, local media said on Thursday, following an election overshadowed by US president Donald Trump’s interest in taking control of the island.
The expected announcement of a broad coalition would come on the day that US vice-president JD Vance is set to visit the Arctic island, which is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.
Mr Vance, in a revised travel plan that initially upset both Greenland and Denmark, is expected to visit the US military base at Pituffik in the north on Friday.
The original plan included a visit by Mr Vance’s wife, Usha, and national security adviser Mike Waltz, to a popular dog-sled race, with no invitation from Greenland’s authorities.
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Greenlandic broadcaster KNR said the coalition announcement would take place at about 11am local time (1pm Irish time) on Friday.
A source said the new government would be led by Jens-Frederik Nielsen, leader of the pro-business party the Democrats, which emerged as the biggest party as it tripled its representation to 10 seats in a general election on March 11th.
Mr Nielsen had urged the parties to set aside disagreements and swiftly form a broad coalition government to show unity in the face of Mr Trump’s campaign to annex the territory.
Since taking office in January, Mr Trump has vowed to make Greenland part of the United States, saying it is vital to US security interests, an idea rejected by most Greenlanders.
Mute Egede, Greenland’s acting prime minister, has repeatedly emphasised that the island is not for sale and says its people will determine their future.
In a separate development on Thursday, Danish government ministers condemned what they called Mr Trump’s escalated rhetoric and praised Greenland’s inhabitants for their resilience in the face of US pressure for control over the Arctic island.
Mr Trump told journalists on Wednesday that the US needs the strategically located island for national and international security.
“So, I think we’ll go as far as we have to go. We need Greenland and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark,” he said.
Danish defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen criticised Mr Trump’s latest comments.
“I need to clearly speak out against what I see as an escalation from the American side,” he said. “The tightened rhetoric is in every way far-fetched.”
In a major speech on Thursday, Russian president Vladimir Putin said Mr Trump’s stated intention to acquire Greenland was “serious”, and it was clear that the US would continue to promote its interests in the Arctic. The Greenland question had nothing to do with Russia, he said.
But Moscow was concerned that “Nato countries in general are increasingly designating the far north as a springboard for possible conflicts, practising the use of troops in these conditions, including by their ‘new recruits’, Finland and Sweden,” he said, referring to the alliance’s latest members.
Almost all Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the United States, according to opinion polls. In recent weeks, anti-American protesters have staged some of the largest demonstrations ever seen on the island.
Mr Poulsen said it was up to the Greenlandic people to determine their future. Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen praised residents of the island, which has a population of 57,000.
“The attention is overwhelming and the pressure is great, but it is in times like these that you show what you are made of,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
“You have not been cowed. You have stood up for who you are – and you have shown what you stand for. That has my deepest respect,” she said. − Reuters
