Greenland’s independence movement sees opportunity in Trump’s interest

euronews (in English)

After US President Donald Trump's Greenland acquisition comments, Greenlanders see an opportunity to advocate for more self governance, while 85% oppose joining US.

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00:00Greenland's independence movement believes Trump's recent claims to take over the semi-autonomous

00:11Danish state is an opportunity for native Greenlanders to push for full sovereignty.

00:17Polling over the last few days show 85% of Greenlanders oppose joining the U.S.

00:24Kupanuk Olsson is Greenland's biggest influencer with 1.6 million followers, many of them in

00:30the United States.

00:31She says her culture, the Inuit, have survived over a thousand years of harsh conditions.

00:37She's not afraid of Trump's bellicose rhetoric.

00:40I have chosen not to be afraid.

00:44I have chosen not to be scared.

00:47We just have to figure out how to do the best dance with Trump.

00:53How can we make the best deals out of this?

00:57It's very colonial mindset when you think when Denmark no longer has Greenland, U.S.

01:04will just take it.

01:05And it's just like colonizers talking with another colonizer mindset.

01:11It's like we are human beings.

01:12So while Greenlanders say they don't want to be part of the United States, it doesn't

01:16necessarily mean that they want to be closer to Denmark either.

01:19I think what Greenland is really going for is self-independence in terms of government

01:33and all that.

01:34So it's really great that Denmark supports Greenland in terms of financial and economically.

01:38But I can see why the U.S. would be interested because they're obviously very much interested

01:44in the geopolitical positioning that Greenland is in and all the materials that they can

01:49acquire in terms of getting better military equipments and such.

01:54Those who want independence believe doing a deal with the U.S. while also having good

01:58relations with Denmark and Europe is the best way forward.

02:03You have to admit that he has done a lot of good for our independence course.

02:07In what way?

02:09Well, whenever Trump is not in office, people don't care about Greenland.

02:13You're here for a reason.

02:16So we get the opportunity to explain what is going on in Greenland and trying to explain

02:22that we're not isolationists.

02:23We want to work with the rest of the world, not just Denmark.

02:27The same polling says 84% of Greenlanders want their homeland to be independent from

02:32Denmark, yet half of that only if it doesn't have a negative impact on their standard of

02:37living.

02:38Shona Murray, Euronews, Nuuk, Greenland.

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