Denmark struggles to stay calm in crisis over Trump threat to take Greenland

The gloomy weather in Copenhagen in January matches the mood of Danish politicians and business leaders.

“We take this very seriously,” said Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Donald Trump’s threat to annex Greenland – and punish Denmark with high taxes if it stands in the way.

But, he added, the government “has no intention of escalating the war of words.”

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen scoffed at Trump’s suggestion that the US could use the military to occupy Greenland. “I have no preconceived notions that it will be like that,” he told Danish TV.

And Lars Sandahl Sorensen, CEO of Danish Industry, said that there is “every reason to be calm… nobody is interested in a trade war.”

But behind the protests, high-level emergency preparedness meetings have been taking place in Copenhagen throughout the week, reflecting the shock caused by Trump’s comments.

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede flew in to meet the Prime Minister and King Frederik X on Wednesday.

And on Thursday night, party leaders from across the political spectrum gathered for a surprise meeting on the crisis with Mette Frederiksen at the Danish parliament.

In the face of what many in Denmark called Trump’s “outrage”, Frederiksen tried to strike a friendly tone, repeatedly saying that the US is “Denmark’s best friend”.

It was “natural” that the US was preoccupied with the Arctic and Greenland, he added.

However, he also said that any decision about the future of Greenland should be up to its people: “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders… and it is the Greenlanders who must define their future.”

His caution is twofold.

On the other hand, Frederiksen is keen to avoid escalating the problem. He was under fire before, in 2019, when Trump canceled a trip to Denmark after he said that the offer to buy Greenland was “absurd”.

“Back then he only had one year in office, then things went back to normal,” former political reporter Erik Holstein told the BBC. “But maybe this is new.”

But Frederiksen’s comments also speak to the Danish decision not to interfere in the internal affairs of Greenland – a self-governing territory that has its own parliament and whose people rely heavily on their independence.

“They should have made it clear by rejecting the proposal,” said opposition councilor Rasmus Jarlov.

“This lack of respect from the incoming US president to our most loyal allies and friends is making history,” he told the BBC, although he admitted that Trump’s pressure “surprised everyone.”

The conservative MP believed that Frederiksen’s insistence that “only Greenland … can decide and define the future of Greenland” put too much pressure on the island’s inhabitants. “It would have been wiser and wiser to stand behind Greenland and just say clearly that Denmark doesn’t want it. [a US takeover].”

The Greenland question is a difficult one for Denmark, whose minister recently apologized for leading efforts in the 1950s that led to the removal of Inuit children from their families to be re-educated as “Danes”.

Last week, Greenland’s leader said the region must free itself from “colonial shackles.”

In doing so they fostered a sense of nationalism, fueled by the interest of the younger generations of Greenlanders in Inuit culture and history.

Many commentators now expect a successful independence referendum in the near future. Although for many it may seem like a victory, it may also bring new problems, as 60% of Greenland’s economy depends on Denmark.

An independent Greenland “has to make decisions,” said Karsten Honge. A Social Democrat MP now fears he may decide a new Commonwealth agreement “based on equality and democracy” will not happen.

Sitting in his parliamentary office decorated with poems and paintings depicting Inuit life, Honge said Greenland needs to decide “how it respects its independence”. It could cut ties with Denmark and turn to the US, Honge said, “but if you respect freedom then it doesn’t make sense.”

Opposition MP Jarlov says that although there is no reason to force Greenland to become part of Denmark, it is “very close to becoming an independent country”.

Its headquarters in Nuuk is self-governing, but it depends on Copenhagen for financial management, foreign relations and security – and financial aid.

“Greenland today has more independence than Denmark with the EU,” added Jarlov. “So I hope he’s thinking straight.”

As Mette Frederiksen has the difficult task of responding strongly without offending Greenland or the US, the strongest criticism of Trump’s comments so far has come from outside Denmark.

The principle of border neutrality “applies to every country … no matter how small or how powerful,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the EU would not allow it. other countries “attack its borders”.

Their comments raised concerns within the EU about how to deal with the incoming Trump administration. “This is not a threat to Greenland and Denmark – it is a global and European issue,” MP Karsten Honge said.

“Imagine a world – which we can face in a few weeks – where there is no international cooperation. This could shake everything, and Denmark would be only a small part of it.”

Denmark’s business sector was also hit by a big scare after Mr Trump said he would “pay Denmark at a very high rate” if it refused to give up Greenland to the US.

The 2024 Danish Industry study showed that Denmark’s GDP would drop by three percentage points if the US were to impose 10% tariffs on imports from the EU to the US as part of a global trade war.

Excluding Danish goods from the EU’s stock market would be untenable for the US, and would lead to retaliatory measures from the EU. But business experts are taking a few chances, and in Denmark as elsewhere on the continent, a lot of money is being spent internally preparing for what might happen in Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.

As the launch approaches, the Danes are preparing as much as possible to weather the storm. There is hope that the soon-to-be-elected president will change his mind to appeals to other EU institutions, and that the Greenland question can be temporarily resolved.

But the uproar stemmed from Trump’s refusal to block the military intervention in Greenland.

Karsten Honge said that Denmark would suffer whatever the US would take.

“They just need to send a small ship to the coast of Greenland and send a letter of respect to Denmark,” he said, partly in jest.

“The last sentence would be: well, Denmark, what are you going to do with it?

“That’s the new reality about Trump.”