Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Denmark to show support for Greenland and reject repeated threats by US President Donald Trump to seize control of the autonomous Danish territory.
On Saturday, demonstrators waved Danish and Greenlandic flags, created a sea of red and white outside Copenhagen City Hall, and chanted “Kalaarit Nunaat”, the name of the Arctic island in Greenlandic.
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Vigils were also held throughout the day in the Danish cities of Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense, as well as in Greenland’s capital Nuuk.
“We are very grateful for the tremendous support that we Greenlanders are receiving… We are also sending a message to the world that you all have to wake up,” said Julie Rademacher, president of Uagut, the Danish organization for Greenlanders.
“Greenland and Greenlanders are inadvertently at the forefront of the fight for democracy and human rights,” she added.
The demonstrations came after President Trump said he would impose 10% tariffs on European allies opposed to U.S. control of Greenland starting February 1, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The US president, who said the measures were vital to his country’s interests, added that these tariffs would rise to 25 percent on June 1 and remain in place until an agreement is reached for the US to purchase Greenland.
Greenland and Denmark reject the idea of the island being “owned” by the United States, but efforts to get the U.S. government to change its stance appear to have so far failed.
“We were unable to change the US position,” Denmark and Greenland’s foreign ministers said after a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, DC, this week.
“It is clear that the president has a desire to conquer Greenland,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters.
The latest poll, released in January last year, found that 85 percent of Greenlanders opposed the territory’s incorporation into the United States, with just 6 percent in favor.
Reporting from Greenland’s capital Nuuk, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challans said Saturday’s rally was expected to be large.
“This is…the capital, but the population is only about 19,000 to 20,000 people. Everyone I spoke to yesterday said they would come out and march today,” Challans said.
“This is essentially Danes and Greenlanders coming together. Everyone here believes that at some point (Greenland) needs some form of independence,” he added.
“But for now, Denmark and Greenland insist that the best way out of this crisis is to remain united.”
Some U.S. lawmakers, including Trump’s own Republicans, have also voiced opposition to the president’s push to take control of Greenland, saying it threatens global stability and the U.S. commitment to NATO.
On Friday, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers led by Democratic Sen. Chris Coons visited Denmark and said there is no security threat to Greenland that would justify the Trump administration’s stance.
“Greenland is part of Denmark. Denmark is a NATO ally. In my opinion, this should be the end of this discussion,” Coons told reporters in Copenhagen.
President Trump has repeatedly accused Denmark of not doing enough to secure Greenland’s territorial waters in the Arctic Circle.
France’s Armed Forces Minister Alice Rufo said this week that Europe’s NATO member states were sending troops to Greenland for military exercises aimed at showing they “defend (their) sovereignty.”
Britain, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have announced they will send small numbers of military personnel for future exercises in the Arctic.
