Adults and children out in the streets of Nuuk, the capital of Greenland (Kalaalit Nunaat). The Greenlanders have the right to self-determination under international law and can set important conditions for the country’s future by casting their ballots today. (Photo: Mats Bjerde/norden.org)
Today, March 11, the people of Greenland elect their representatives to the Greenlandic parliament, Inatsisartut. In and around the election are major questions about the island’s future, both in relation to the Kingdom of Denmark and Donald Trump’s USA.
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Today, Tuesday, the Greenlandic parliament Inatsisartut is up for election. According to Greenlandic law, votes can be cast from 09:00 to 20:00 (local time, GMT-2) on the election day.
This general election was announced on February 4th by Múte Bourup Egede (IA), the Prime Minister of the Greenlandic Government, Naalakkersuisut.
“It is time for an Inatsisartut election. We are in the middle of a serious time. A time that we have never before experienced in our country. This is not the time for internal division but for cooperation and unity for our country. I am more than ready to work for you and to lead our country,” stated Egede to his voters in Greenland on his Facebook site in February.
“We are ardent for the best for our country. A safe and meaningful future obliges us all to take responsibility and cooperate,” he pointed out on the same platform on Monday.
Múte B. Egede, Chair of the party Inuit Ataqatigiit and current PM of Naalakkersuisut, asks for renewed trust from Greenlandic voters. In the time before the election, he has repeatedly encouraged common sense and unity in the face of international interest in Greenland, especially from the US Trump administration. Egede published this video on Monday evening.
The gravity of the situation, both at the time of the election announcement and now, just over a month later, is mainly linked to two factors. One is characterized by big politics and more specifically security politics, and the other by an overarching domestic political nature:
First, the president of the superpower USA, Donald Trump, has repeatedly expressed a desire to gain control over Greenland. Trump has refused to reject the use of economic and military means to achieve this, and he and his son have also attempted to influence the Greenlandic population strongly.
In a speech to Congress on March 5th, Trump appeared to acknowledge Greenlanders’ right to self-determination and promised them ‘safety, wealth, and development of unimaginable heights’ under the wing of the United States. He also stated that the US would gain control over the island “one way or the other.”
Greenlandic power of definition and the Kingdom of Denmark’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is what applies here, the leaders in Nuuk and Copenhagen have responded time and again. This has been backed up by European institutions and states in particular.
Secondly, there is an intense debate in Greenland and the Danish realm about Greenlandic self-government, the development of a self-sustaining economy, and independence from the Kingdom of Denmark. In this lies a confrontation with former Danish colonial rule and continued Danish primacy in decision-making in various fields.
Economy, welfare, and security: As most parliament elections, the Greenlandic one is also characterized by contemporary local societal issues. Examples of central fields are the Greenlandic economy and business development, the job and housing market, health and education, as well as infrastructure – along with military security and public security (preparedness in the face of i.a. climate change)
Sisimiut is Greenland’s second largest town after Nuuk. The town also has the island’s northernmost port, which is ice-free year round, and constitutes the country’s most important fisheries port. (Photo: Kitte Witting/norden.org)
• Greenland is a self-governed country within the sovereign state of the Kingdom of Denmark. Overall, the realm consists of continental Denmark and the islands of Greenland and the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic.
• Greenland’s constitutional position follows partly from the Danish constitution, and partly from the Greenland Self-Government Act of 2009. (See also description of the act in English from the Danish Prime Minister’s Office here).
• The Greenland self-government holds power within the areas of responsibility the country has taken over from the Danish authorities. In these areas, the Inatsisartut holds the legislative power, and the Naalakkersuisut holds the executive power. The judicial power is vested in own courts in Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark’s Supreme Court in Copenhagen.
• The Greenlandic areas of responsibility comprise most interior matters that affect the daily lives of Greenlandic citizens, including public finances. The Greenlandic authority and responsibility can, according to the Self-Government Act, be extended to include i.a. a police force, a judicial system and border control.
• The Danish parliament allocates an annual block grant of around DKK 4 billion to the Greenlandic self-government.
• Foreign, security, and defense policy are matters of the realm and are mainly governed by the Danish government and parliament. In recent years, Greenland and the Faroe Islands have been heard in their demands for increased participation and co-determination in these policy areas.
Greenland is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system.
Inatsisartut has 31 seats, for which six parties are currently competing. The representatives are elected for four-year terms.
In the election for Inatsisartut, the whole of Greenland forms one constituency, and the mandates are distributed proportionally using the d’Hont method.
The party (or a coalition of parties) with the greatest representation in the parliament forms the government, Naalakkersuisut. In order to come to power, the government must also win a vote of confidence (an investiture vote) in parliament. This is called positive parliamentarism.
The outgoing Naalakkersuisut comprises a coalition of the parties Inuit Ataqatigiit and Siumut. They have governed together since 2022 and have five ministers (Naalakkersuisoq) each.
Ilulissat, Greenland’s third largest town, is located on the west coast. The town is a center for Greenlandic shrimp and halibut fisheries, as well as the fisheries industry. (Photo: Lisa Ouellette)
• Greenland has 56,699 inhabitants, according to Statistics Greenland 2024.
• Under the Inatsisartut Act on elections to the Greenland Parliament, the right to vote applies to anyone with Danish citizenship, is 18 years old or older, and has had permanent residence in Greenland at least six months before the election. Around 40,000 are eligible to vote in the 2025 election, according to DR.
• Elections for Greenlandic municipal and village councils will be held on April 1st 2025.
• The Greenlenders also elect two representatives for the Danish parliament, the Folketing, in Copenhagen. At the previous Danish parliament election (November 2022) in Greenland, there were a total of 41,305 eligible voters, of whom 19,734 voted. The turnout was 47.8 percent, according to the High Commissioner of Greenland.
The following parties are running for election:
• Inuit Ataqatigiit (‘Human Community’): Left-wing socialist profile. Wants to strengthen the Greenlandic self-government within the realm in the short term, but with a clear aim for Greenland to be an independent state in the longer term. The party leader is Múte B. Egede.
• Siumut (‘Onward’): Social democratic profile. It also wants to enhance Greenland’s self-government in the short term, as a transition to the establishment of an independent Greenlandic state in the longer term. The party so far held the position of Greenland’s Minister of Independence (combined with Foreign Affairs). The party leader is Erik Jensen.
• Naleraq (‘Lodestar’): Concerned with the liberalization of the business sector according to the premises of those engaged in fishing and hunting – and seeks rapid independence for Greenland. The party leader is Pele Broberg.
• Demokraatit (‘The Democrats’): Social-liberal profile. Wants to make Greenlandic self-government a success in the short term, with a clear aim for independence for Greenland in the longer term. Party leader is Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
• Atassut (‘Interconnection’): Liberal stance. It emphasizes the value of being part of the Kingdom of Denmark and believes that the process of taking over areas of responsibility from Copenhagen has proceeded at too fast a pace. The party leader is Aqqalu C. Jerimiassen.
• Qulleq (‘Lamp’): Newcomer party founded in 2023 by former members of Siumut and Naleraq. Its key issues are rapid independence for Greenland and the start of Greenlandic oil extraction. The party leader is Karl Ingemann.
Vivian Motzfeldt, deputy chair of the Siumut party, is also running for re-election. As Naalakkersuisoq (minister) of Foreign Affairs and Independence, Motzfeldt has, in recent years, led the work of forming Greenland’s foreign policy and, not least, the preparation of an independent constitution for Greenland. Here she is speaking in the Inatsisartut in 2022, flanked by Nordic minister colleagues, such as Norway’s PM Jonas Gahr Støre. (Photo: Magnus Fröderberg/norden.org)
• “Ask and you shall receive: Polls in and about Greenland, with Trump as a catalyst” [ed. translation] is the title of a topical article by Ulrik Pram Gad, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. It was published on February 4th.
• In this, Gad points out serious weaknesses in an opinion poll conducted by the American Patriot Polling and states that it is very misleading.
• He considers that an opinion poll conducted by Verian for the newspapers Sermitsiaq (GL) and Berlingske (DK) is far more solid. In this, almost 90% of Greenlanders say no to Greenland leaving the realm and becoming part of the United States instead.
• Although this poll also its weaknesses, Gad points out, the high percentage of no votes confirms “the expectation that anyone who has listened to Greenlandic public debate over the years must have: the Greenlandic population does not want to replace one colonial master with another [Trump’s USA, ed. note]. Greenland is ‘open for business, not for sale’; it wants trade and connections in all directions to become less dependent on any one country.”
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