GREENLAND (2)

There was an election in Greenland on Tuesday. Opinion polls said it would be a dead heat, but in the end the opposition Siumut (Social Democrats) won over the incumbent Inuit Ataqatigilt (Socialists). As elsewhere in Scandinavia, Siumut are the natural party of Government, having run the place from its founding in 1977 until the election in 2009. However, what is different this time is that the party is now led by a woman, Aleqa Hammond, who looks likely to lead the Government. In a male-dominated society, that represents a real shift.

It is no surprise that the two leading parties (which, between them, took 77% of the vote) are both left-of-centre. Greenland's 56,000 inhabitants get a subsidy of around Dkr.3.5 billion a year from Denmark, or a bit more than Dkr.60.000 per person. Since that is not going to change for a while, right-wing parties tend to struggle. Nevertheless, Ms. Hammond is, in Greenlandic terms, heading in that direction. This is likely to reflect itself most in a tweaking of the "large scale law", which regulates large mining projects and which was passed last year (though it is yet to be ratified by Denmark). Danish politicians are most worried about the immigration implications (see the earlier post); Ms. Hammond is more focussed on getting the principle of royalties included in the legislation.

Everybody agrees that Greenland has lots of minerals. Everybody also agrees that exploiting them will be very difficult. The election of Ms. Hammond suggests that Greenlanders intend to drive a hard bargain with the mining companies.

Walter Blotscher