Election posters on the streets of Nuuk, Greenland March 30, 2021.
Denmark’s self-governing territory of Greenland holds legislative and municipal elections today, April 6. The planet’s warming climate and rare earths and uranium mines in the island’s south have made the large Arctic island a coveted target, with the Chinese state-owned Australian mining company in the spotlight.
Greenland is the size of four France, with a population of 56,000, most of whose inhabitants are Inuit, and nearly 40,000 voters. According to French newspaper Figaro, Kuannersuit (Kvanefjeld), a mountain in southern Greenland, contains the world’s second largest rare earth reserves and uranium mines after China, attracting covetousness and disputes.
In 2009, Denmark was granted extended self-government status in Greenland in the Arctic, with control over its natural resources. It is the mountain’s rare earth and uranium resources that are at stake in today’s April 6 early elections for the island’s local council.
The two major parties on the giant Arctic island are divided over whether to allow the construction of a rare earth and uranium project that has been planned for more than 10 years on the southern tip of Mount Kuanast.
In a televised debate on Greenland’s KNR channel on March 30, the first mandatory question was whether mining 500 kilograms of uranium per year from Mount Kuanast is an acceptable amount. This is the amount desired by Australia’s Greenland Mining, which is controlled by Chinese state-owned Shenghe Resources Holding.
Supporters, including the ruling Social Democratic Party Siumut, which is trailing in the polls, see the mine as an important resource for a small economy that still relies heavily on Danish subsidies, according to AFP.
But for opponents, including the left-wing, ecologically inclined Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) party, which is leading in the polls, the mine poses a threat to the magnificent landscape and fragile environment in the region, which has been hit by accelerating climate change.
Seven parties and 189 candidates are vying for 31 seats on the local council Inatsisartut. 72 polling stations, some of them the northernmost in the world, open at 09:00 local time (11:00 GMT). After the polls close at 22:00 GMT, the results are expected to be announced overnight.
AFP reporters noted that in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, voters entered the large sports center Inusivik, where the capital’s polling station is located.
Frederik Grønvold told AFP: “I won’t vote like last time (……) I want change.” He wants to see the entire country develop its fishing industry.
If the shakeup in Greenland’s local political life since self-government in 1979 has not always been exciting, Greenland is receiving increasing international attention in the context of Russia’s and, more recently, China’s positioning in the Arctic, as evidenced by President Trump’s offer to Denmark to buy the island in 2019. Both Copenhagen and Nuuk have said the land is not for sale.
Denmark has stated that it does not want to obstruct the process of Greenland’s independence, paying the Greenland government more than 520 million euros a year, or a third of its total budget.
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