Following President Macron’s visit to Greenland last June, the French ambassador to Denmark, Christophe Parisot, is considering opening a French consulate general in Nuuk in 2026, following in the footsteps of the European Union (Sermitsiaq, August 13). In July, as part of the Danish presidency of the EU Council, a delegation of European ambassadors and senior officials visited Ilulissat and Nuuk to strengthen cooperation with Greenland on climate, security, and raw materials issues (Sermitsiaq, July 31). Meanwhile, in an interview with Reuters, the head of the Arctic Command said that Greenland is not that difficult to defend, and that its defense is under control (Sermitsiaq, June 27). That being said, Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen has affirmed his commitment to increasing the Danish military presence in Greenland through the construction of a new headquarters for the Arctic Command, as well as the creation of a Greenlandic military unit under the Arctic Command, as part of the Arctic Basic Training, which is located in Kangerlussuaq (DR & DR, August 18). While in Nuuk, he met with Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt and German Deputy Defence Minister Dr. Nils Schmid to work on strengthening cooperation between the three countries in light of developments in security policy. On this occasion, the German supply ship “Berlin” docked in Nuuk (Sermitsiaq, August 18). At the national level, for the former prime minister, and now Minister of Finance, Múte B. Egede, “Greenland is entering an economic crisis,” predicting budget cuts of 864 million kroner over the next four years, notably through a reform of the pension system (Altinget, August 19). The minister attributes, in part, the current economic difficulties in Greenland to the lack of manpower and the weakening of Greenland’s development potential resulting from the campaign of forced sterilization of Greenlandic women and girls in the 1960s (DR, August 19). In this regard, the investigation, which is to reveal the consequences of forced sterilizations and contraception cases from the 1960s to the present day, is running behind schedule and is not expected to be published before the end of January 2026 (Sermitsiaq, June 28). While Greenlandic independence has occupied a central place in recent debates, a new party has just been created in Tasiilaq to defend this time the independence of the eastern part of Greenland (Party for an Independent Eastern Greenland, PSØ.G.). On May 18, a large demonstration took place in Tasiilaq against politicians from the west coast. Anette Nicolaisen, one of the party’s founders, summarized: “We absolutely cannot bear that West Greenland says: ‘Denmark, you are not listening to us, Denmark, you are doing all these things against us,’ and when we then say, you are doing exactly the same thing to us, nobody does anything” (DR, August 2). In Denmark, Ivana Nikoline Brønlund, 18, from Greenland, has just had her child forcibly taken from her at birth by the municipality of Høje-Taastrup. While the removal of Greenlandic children from their families has been the subject of widespread controversy since last year, and the Danish government has finally decided to end the controversial FKU psychological test and create a special unit (VISO), protests have taken place in Nuuk (Sermitsiaq, August 13). It appears that the municipality of Høje-Taastrup has not complied with the new legislation (Sermitsiaq, August 16). Today, several dozen cases are being re-evaluated in light of criticism of institutionalized discrimination through FKU tests (DR, August 10).
Researcher in Social & Transdisciplinary Sciences · Critical Environmental Justice & Ethnographies
Tanguy Sandré 