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Greenland plans to ban foreign and anonymous donations to its political parties after the Trump administration has said the US president is serious about taking take control of the vast Arctic island.
The government of Greenland on Monday put forward an emergency parliamentary proposal to safeguard the country’s “political integrity” ahead of elections due by April 6. It warned against a “worrying” threat as modest donations elsewhere would be “colossal” on the island of just 57,000 people.
Foreign or anonymous donations “could potentially distort completely the chances of Greenlandic parties participating in an election campaign”, the government said.
It explicitly cited donations by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, in the recent US elections in favour of Donald Trump as well as Greenland’s “vulnerability” to foreign influence.
“The current bill . . . must be seen in the light of the geopolitical interest in Greenland, and the current situation where representatives of a great allied power have expressed an interest in taking over and controlling Greenland,” the proposal said.
The proposed ban is the first concrete move by Greenland’s government since it was forced into the global spotlight by Trump’s renewed interest in buying it to secure the “national security” of the US.
Múte Egede, Greenland’s prime minister, has consistently stated that the island is not for sale and does not want to be American or belong to Denmark, which currently controls the autonomous territory.
Tensions have been steadily rising between the US and Denmark, traditionally two staunch Nato allies, after the Financial Times reported on a stormy phone call between Trump and Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s prime minister.
US vice-president JD Vance escalated matters on Sunday by claiming that Denmark was “not being a good ally” and was failing to do its job in looking after security in Greenland.
That sparked outrage in Denmark, which has contributed to many US military campaigns in recent years including losing more soldiers per capita than any other country in Afghanistan.
Frederiksen said on Monday: “We have fought side by side for many, many decades. We are one of the US’s most important and best allies — and that is why I don’t want Denmark being accused of being a bad ally. We are not, we have not been, and we will not be in the future.”
Last week Marco Rubio, the new US secretary of state, confirmed that Trump’s interest in Greenland was “not a joke”. He told SiriusXM radio: “This is not about acquiring land for the purpose of acquiring land. This is in our national interest and it needs to be solved.”
Rubio added that if the US, which already has a military base on Greenland, did not take further action, China could seek to gain influence over the island.
“So the question becomes, if the Chinese begin to threaten Greenland, do we really trust that is not a place where those deals are going to be made? Do we really trust that is not a place where they would not intervene, maybe by force?” he asked.
