Liberals' surprise win shifts Greenland's focus to economy
The opposition Liberal party Democrats, focusing on the economy rather than solely on the issue of Greenland's independence, won Tuesday's parliamentary elections on this autonomous territory dependent on Denmark, securing 29.9% of the votes, according to preliminary results published on the Valg.gl election office website.
By Wednesday morning, votes cast in all 72 polling stations had been counted.
The leader of the victorious Democrats, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, repeatedly emphasized during the election campaign that one should focus on current affairs and "make haste slowly" regarding independence. The politician promised, among other things, to lower taxes. The victory of the Democrats, who previously had only three seats in the 31-seat parliament, is being described as a "huge surprise".
In second place was the party advocating for rapid independence—the Naleraq party with 24.5% of the votes. This party is also the only one that explicitly promotes closeness with the USA.
Prime Minister: We respect the choice of Greenlanders
The leftist party of the current Prime Minister, Mute B. Egede, Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA), achieved only the third-best result—21.4%. Prime Minister Egede admitted defeat. "We respect the choice of Greenlanders," he told the Greenlandic public broadcaster KNR.
The fourth party in the new parliament will be the social-democratic Siumut party, which was previously in the governing coalition, with 14.7% of the votes.
The conservative Atassut party, traditionally advocating for maintaining ties with Denmark, will also enter the parliament with 7.3% of the votes.
The election of 31 deputies to the Greenlandic parliament generated particular interest because most of the six parties participating in the elections announced the start of the process of declaring independence. At the same time, Greenland became the object of interest from US President Donald Trump, who expressed intentions to acquire the island.
