“Enough is enough”: Greenland’s outgoing Prime Minister Mute Egede announced Thursday that he would bring together party leaders “as soon as possible” to jointly reject Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he wants to annex the Arctic island.
“This time, we must toughen our rejection of Trump. We must not continue to be disrespected,” the interim leader of the autonomous Danish territory said on Facebook.
Mr. Egede continues to govern Greenland pending the formation of a new government after his defeat in the parliamentary elections on Tuesday against a center-right party.
“The American president has once again raised the idea of annexing us. I absolutely cannot accept this,” he wrote.
“I respect the election result, but I consider that I have an obligation as interim head of government: I have therefore asked the administration to summon the party leaders as soon as possible,” he explains.
Asked about his desire to reunite the vast Arctic island with the United States, Donald Trump replied on Thursday, in the presence of NATO chief Mark Rutte, that he thought “it will happen.”
During his first term (2017-2021), he had already raised the idea of buying Greenland, which was met with a rejection from the Danish and Greenlandic authorities.
Having returned to the White House in January, he has for several months been reiterating his desire to seize territory – without ruling out the use of force – deemed important for American security.
None of Greenland’s political parties support this possibility, and the vast majority of the island’s population is also opposed to it, according to a poll published in January.