Danish PM summons party leaders to emergency meeting: ‘We are in a foreign policy crisis’

Danish national broadcaster DR reports that a group of political parties in the Danish parliament Folketinget have been summoned to a meeting in the office of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. The objective of the meeting is to discuss Trump’s statement yesterday, where he reaffirmed his interest in acquiring Greenland.

The group consists of party leaders from the three government parties the Social Democrats (Socialdemokratiet), Venstre (The Liberal Party) and the Moderates (Moderaterne), along with the Conservatives, the Social Liberals (Radikale), the Socialist People’s Party (SF), and the Liberal Alliance. There will also be close communication with the two Greenlandic members of Parliament.

Speaking to DR, leader of Radikale Martin Lidegaard said the situation was critical and that Denmark needed to look to other allies for assistance.

“This is not easy, and it’s not going to be easy,” he said. “When we are in a foreign policy crisis, like the one we are in now—a serious situation—we fortunately have a strong tradition in the Danish Parliament of trying to maintain unity between the parties.”

He described the past 24 hours as “relatively wild” and that the Nordic nation finds it self in precarious and unknown waters.

“The only thing that is certain is that it is imperative for Denmark to look toward the EU and Brussels and aim to position itself strongly within an alliance there.”

SF’s Karsten Hønge told DR it was almost incomprehensible that Donald Trump continues to push his stance on Greenland as he does.

“We are being put under maximum pressure by the United States and it is completely inconceivable that an allied country can subject us to threats,” he says, following the new U.S. president’s statement on P1 Morgen that the United States “needs” Greenland.

Hønge finds this paradoxical, given that the U.S. already has almost unrestricted access to do as it pleases in Greenland, but fails to utilize these opportunities.

“Something else is at play. It’s Donald Trump’s vanity, and that is much harder to deal with,” Hønge concludes.

He still trusts that Denmark, through NATO and the EU, can make it clear to Donald Trump that “one country cannot simply swallow another.”

“I trust that our government and also our embassy are doing everything humanly possible to talk sense into Trump.”

If those efforts fail, Hønge believes it reflects more on Trump than on Denmark’s attempts.