NUUK, Greenland: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is in Greenland for a three-day trip aimed at building trust and cooperation with Greenlandic officials at a time when the Trump administration is seeking control of the vast Arctic territory.
Frederiksen announced plans for her visit after US Vice President JD Vance visited a US air base in Greenland last week and accused Denmark of underinvesting in the territory.
Greenland is a mineral-rich, strategically critical island that is becoming more accessible because of climate change. Trump has said that the landmass is critical to US security. It’s geographically part of North America, but is a semiautonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark.
After her arrival Wednesday, Frederiksen walked the streets of the capital, Nuuk, with the incoming Greenlandic leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen. She is also to meet with the future Naalakkersuisut, the Cabinet, in a visit due to last through Friday.
“It has my deepest respect how the Greenlandic people and the Greenlandic politicians handle the great pressure that is on Greenland,” she said in government statement announcing the visit.
On the agenda are talks with Nielsen about cooperation between Greenland and Denmark.
Nielsen has said in recent days that he welcomes the visit, and that Greenland would resist any US attempt to annex the territory.
“We must listen when others talk about us. But we must not be shaken. President Trump says the United States is ‘getting Greenland.’ Let me make this clear: The US is not getting that. We don’t belong to anyone else. We decide our own future,” he wrote Sunday on Facebook.
“We must not act out of fear. We must respond with peace, dignity and unity. And it is through these values that we must clearly, clearly and calmly show the American president that Greenland is ours.”
For years, the people of Greenland, with a population of about 57,000, have been working toward eventual independence from Denmark.
The Trump administration’s threats to take control of the island one way or the other, possibly even with military force, have angered many in Greenland and Denmark. The incoming government chosen in last month’s election wants to take a slower approach on the question of eventual independence.
The political group in Greenland most sympathetic to the US president, the Naleraq party that advocates a swift path toward independence, was excluded from coalition talks to form the next government.
Peter Viggo Jakobsen, associate professor at the Danish Defense Academy, said last week that the Trump administration’s aspirations for Greenland could backfire and push the more mild parties closer to Denmark.
He said that “Trump has scared most Greenlanders away from this idea about a close relationship to the United States because they don’t trust him.”
Danish prime minister visits Greenland as Trump seeks control of the Arctic territory
Danish prime minister visits Greenland as Trump seeks control of the Arctic territory
- Greenland is a mineral-rich, strategically critical island that is becoming more accessible because of climate change
- It is geographically part of North America, but is a semiautonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark
French minister pledges tight security at rally for killed activist
- Deranque’s death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year
- Macron has said there was no place in France “for movements that adopt and legitimize violence“
LYON: French police will be out in force at a weekend rally for a slain far-right activist, the interior minister said Friday, as the country seeks to contain anger over the fatal beating blamed on the hard left.
Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people on the sidelines of a protest against a politician from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party in the southeastern city of Lyon last week.
His death has fomented tensions ahead of municipal elections next month and presidential polls next year, in which the far-right National Rally (RN) party is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.
President Emmanuel Macron, who is serving his last year in office, has said there was no place in France “for movements that adopt and legitimize violence,” and urged the far right and hard left to clean up their act.
Deranque’s supporters have called for a march in his memory on Saturday in Lyon.
The Greens mayor of Lyon asked the state to ban it, but Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declined to do so.
Nunez said he had planned an “extremely large police deployment” with reinforcements from outside the city to ensure security at the rally expected to be attended by 2,000 to 3,000 people, and likely to see counter-protesters from the hard left show up.
“I can only ban a demonstration when there are major risks of public disorder and I am not in a position to contain them,” he told the RTL broadcaster.
“My role is to strike a balance between maintaining public order and freedom of expression.”
- ‘Fascist demonstration’ -
Jordan Bardella, the president of anti-immigration RN, has urged party members not to go.
“We ask you, except in very specific and strictly supervised local situations (a tribute organized by a municipality, for example), not to attend these gatherings nor to associate the National Rally with them,” he wrote in a message sent to party officials and seen by AFP.
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard backed the mayor’s call for a ban, warning on X it would be a “fascist demonstration” that “over 1,000 neo-Nazis from all over Europe” were expected to attend.
Two people, aged 20 and 25, have been charged with intentional homicide in relation to the fatal beating, according to the Lyon prosecutor and their lawyers.
A third suspect has been charged with complicity in the killing.
Jacques-Elie Favrot, a 25-year-old former parliamentary assistant to LFI lawmaker Raphael Arnault, has admitted to having been present at the scene but denied delivering the blows that killed Deranque, his attorney said.
Favrot said “it was absolutely not an ambush, but a clash with a group of far-right activists,” he added.
Italy’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday said the killing of Deranque was “a wound for all of Europe.”
Referring to her comments, Macron said everyone should “stay in their own lane,” but Meloni later said that Macron had misinterpreted her comments.
Opinion polls put the far right in the lead for the presidency in 2027, when Macron will have to step down after the maximum two consecutive terms in office.
