The Danish territory of Greenland could have participated in Tuesday’s election which saw the social-democratic party Siumut of Prime Minister Kim Kielsen begin negotiation talks to form a coalition government but the 54,000 residents of the sparsely populated Arctic region seem to have plans of the own-breaking away from the tentacles of Copenhagen and managing their own affairs by themselves.
Whether the Greenlanders have caught the Catalonia bug, remains to be seen but 30 years since Denmark had granted them autonomy, it was only in 2009 when Greenland started self-governing through its own parliament.
With a population of fewer than 60,000 inhabitants, an economy heavily dependent on fishing and the mining of its natural resources, with some 60% of their annual budget subsidized by mainland Denmark, and the possibility of being one of Europe’s poorest nations should they split from Denmark, the self-determination movement don’t seem deterred but rather embolden to chart they own path.
In the Faroe Islands, another oversees Danish territory, a Wednesday referendum was scheduled on whether to adopt a new constitution which will pave a way for independence. Republicans want a total split from Denmark and the issue of independence is very recurrent in the political climate of these territories.
In the civilized countries of the world, a people’s right to self-rule, autonomy, and independence is not generally accepted in civic discourse but the force of their arguments are tested through the ballot by way of referendum. The independence vote of Scotland to split from the UK Union , Britain’s decision in 2016 to leave the economic bloc of the European Union, Catalonia’s independence vote of last year are few cases to consider. Meanwhile, the independence movement in African countries is fiercely met with a brutal crackdown and military incursion in the hopes of quelling the ideology from taking a foothold. Western Sahara and the kingdom of Morocco, Biafra and the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun are few examples of a people whose right to self-determination hang on the balance.
Neba Benson,
BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst
