Without Denmark, Greenland would be lost – Diepresse.com

Trump treats Greenland like a colony because Denmark treats Greenland like a colony. ” With this statement she surprised Austrian author Anna Kim on April 5th in the « Press » Spectrum. In general, the precarious situation of Greenland alone is due to the fact that the world’s largest island is not independent with fewer than 60,000 inhabitants. This more than idiosyncratic analysis is probably due to the postcolonial glasses, with which Anna Kim reports on Greenland. Extracts eight that Greenland is not a colony. The constitutional position within the Kingdom of Denmark speaks against this alone. Just because an island is far from the rest of the country, it is still not a colony. The domestic relationship of Greenland to the continental part of Denmark can probably be described with the words periphery and center. In addition, the peculiarity comes that Greenland forms 98 percent of the area of ​​the Denmark kingdom, but the European core country of Denmark represents 98 percent of the total population.

Trump doesn’t care

Anna Kim is guilty below why Donald Trump would treat an independent, sovereign Greenland differently than he is currently doing. In her inuit romance, she has obviously escaped how the political bullet in the White House deals with the state of Canada, for example, to which he quickly addresses sovereignty. The Canadian Prime Minister is consistently addressed as governor of the future 51st state of the United States. Trump doesn’t care whether Greenland is independent or part of Denmark: he wants the big island on the map. Who he enters against the political shin – be it the government of a populated dwarf state of Greenland or faithful for decades NATO-Partner Denmark -he doesn’t care. Anyone who believes that sovereignty alone protects against occupation is foreign to the world.

Back to Greenland and his relationship with Copenhagen. For year and day, the central government has been alimenting the island covered by the eternal ice with billions. Almost 60 percent of the Greenland budget come from co -payments from Copenhagen. The island would not be able to survive economically alone. The Greenlanders know that, and as much as you may dream of even more autonomy, it is clear: this is only possible with your own income. Despite all the fantasies about possible future income from mining licenses or oil and gas deposits (all of which should first be found and opened up)- not to be achieved in the foreseeable future.

In addition, Greenland – not with an integral part of the EU – As one of the so -called « overseas countries and areas (ülg) », is closely associated with the EU. Another three-digit euro million amount comes to Greenland as part of the current EU multi-year budget. This also speaks against a complete independence of the island. Because an independent Greenland would be sovereign under international law, but there would be no millions from Brussels. And so you feel quite comfortable with the unique ülg status. Incidentally, this is also associated with Union citizenship. This goes so far that Grönlanders can enjoy full people’s free movement in the EU, to settle where they want and also work there. A Grönlander who lives in Vienna, for example, is actively and passively entitled to vote in the upcoming district representative elections on April 27. So it could happen that one of the (as Anna Kim believes) Inuit suppressed, as a district council in Vienna, votes on where the next playground is being built. A unique political right for residents of an alleged colony.

The special position resulting from the ÜLG status means that none of the currently eleven EU overseas areas (in addition to Greenland, for example, the Dutch Antilles or French Polynesia) thinks of striving for complete independence from the EU home. Millions of budget grants and personal access to the EU internal market would then be lost. And in geopolitical stormy times, Union citizenship is not high enough.

The bottom of reality

Even the residents of Neukaledonia recognized this and recently spoken out in a vote for the whereabouts at France. This was preceded by a debate whether, given the world’s largest nickel deposit on the island, one should not dare to jump into independence. However, after China in particular immediately announced his desires, they were quickly back on the ground of reality: a small island, on its own, at least economically would lose his political sovereignty just achieved. Greenland would be very similar.

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