Greenland Government Formation: On the eve of Vance's visit, Greenland has announced a new unity government that includes all parties except Naleraq. Naleraq is the most aggressively nationalist and most pro-Trump of the political parties. It's not surprising that they weren't willing to play in the sandbox with others. The government wi…
Greenland Government Formation: On the eve of Vance's visit, Greenland has announced a new unity government that includes all parties except Naleraq. Naleraq is the most aggressively nationalist and most pro-Trump of the political parties. It's not surprising that they weren't willing to play in the sandbox with others. The government will include four parties which are far-left, socialist, classically liberal, and conservative respectively.
I thought there was one more party, the newly established Qulleq, that was even more pro-Trump than Naleraq – but which didn’t win a single seat in Greenland’s recent parliamentary election.
Not in Greenland. The two left-leaning parties collectively lost 11 seats in the 2025 election and now only hold 11 of 31 seats. It's their worst result in the entire history of Greenland's elected parliament, which from its inception in 1979 until now always had a left-wing majority.
Nationalism is complicated in Greenland. Do you mean Danish nationalism or Greenlandic nationalism? The pro-Danish parties did very well in the election, no doubt because the threats from Trump made Greenlandic independence more questionable. But the most stauntly pro-independence party, Naleraq, also did very well. Naleraq officially favours closer ties to the US, but in the context of an independent Greenland. The failure of the left parties may have also been due to socio-economic issues, which were another major topic in the campaign.
The winning party, the Demokraatit, is a traditional liberal party, whose leader will now be the PM. He is the most pro Denmark and anti-Trump of all the leaders in Greenland which is why the party came from almost nowhere to becoming the biggest player. It wasn't left-right; it was anti-Trump.
So the government got shuffled to more pro-status quo because the independence parties couldn't answer what would happen if the US mobilized from Thule to seize Nuuk (with shock and awe with no shots fired) and they didn't have Denmark or NATO to deter such a thing anymore?
Pretty much so. The NATO angle is very convoluted but it pays to stand up to Trump. That should be a lesson to weak-kneed leaders in the US and elsewhere.
Is that what happened in Germany? Weren't the key takeaways that the neo-Nazi AfD had its best ever showing and the classically liberal (=conservative though non-authoritarian) Union toppled the Social Democrats to become the main party in the Bundestag? Yes, Die Linke also gained, but they are pro-Russian far leftists who are successors to the SeD that used to rule East Germany.
Basically, BSW (Wagenknecht's party) did serve as what amounted to the pro-Russia party, though it's officially economically leftist.
That helped Die Linke, as it shed some of the stigma of being the East Germany nostalgist party and gained some more mainstream support from leftists disappointed with the Social Dems/Greens.
Die Linke did well because their pro-Ruasian faction left, allowing them to present a more coherent platform. The pro Russian faction missed the 5% cutoff.
You all are wrong. The major difference between Wagenknecht's party and Die Linke is that Die Linke is the most pro-immigration party in Germany, whereas the Wagenknecht party is demogagically xenophobic. Their pro-Russian policies are identical. Look up their platforms.
Reading into it a little more, I would say that Die Linke has a nuanced (or inconstant) position on Russia, while BSW is unabashedly pro-Ruasian, but you're right that Linke is less anti-Russia than I thought.
Calling for Europe to be in an alliance with Russia and cutting off any support for Ukraine as it fights against a murderous aggressor is pro-Russian. I sincerely hope those are not positions you share, because support for a kleptocracratic imperialist despotism is not at all socialist or genuinely leftist.
The left-right distinction only matters within governments that are at least somewhat democratic and accountable. It's meaningless within gangster governments.
Greenland Government Formation: On the eve of Vance's visit, Greenland has announced a new unity government that includes all parties except Naleraq. Naleraq is the most aggressively nationalist and most pro-Trump of the political parties. It's not surprising that they weren't willing to play in the sandbox with others. The government will include four parties which are far-left, socialist, classically liberal, and conservative respectively.
I thought there was one more party, the newly established Qulleq, that was even more pro-Trump than Naleraq – but which didn’t win a single seat in Greenland’s recent parliamentary election.
I was counting parties with representation in parliament. Qulleq received ~1% of the vote.
In Greenland, as in Canada, Germany, and elsewhere, Trump's belligerent imperialism is having the effect of strengthening the left.
Not in Greenland. The two left-leaning parties collectively lost 11 seats in the 2025 election and now only hold 11 of 31 seats. It's their worst result in the entire history of Greenland's elected parliament, which from its inception in 1979 until now always had a left-wing majority.
Does the Greenland coalition at least demonstrate the strengthening of nationalist opposition to Trump's American expansionism?
Nationalism is complicated in Greenland. Do you mean Danish nationalism or Greenlandic nationalism? The pro-Danish parties did very well in the election, no doubt because the threats from Trump made Greenlandic independence more questionable. But the most stauntly pro-independence party, Naleraq, also did very well. Naleraq officially favours closer ties to the US, but in the context of an independent Greenland. The failure of the left parties may have also been due to socio-economic issues, which were another major topic in the campaign.
The winning party, the Demokraatit, is a traditional liberal party, whose leader will now be the PM. He is the most pro Denmark and anti-Trump of all the leaders in Greenland which is why the party came from almost nowhere to becoming the biggest player. It wasn't left-right; it was anti-Trump.
So the government got shuffled to more pro-status quo because the independence parties couldn't answer what would happen if the US mobilized from Thule to seize Nuuk (with shock and awe with no shots fired) and they didn't have Denmark or NATO to deter such a thing anymore?
Pretty much so. The NATO angle is very convoluted but it pays to stand up to Trump. That should be a lesson to weak-kneed leaders in the US and elsewhere.
Is that what happened in Germany? Weren't the key takeaways that the neo-Nazi AfD had its best ever showing and the classically liberal (=conservative though non-authoritarian) Union toppled the Social Democrats to become the main party in the Bundestag? Yes, Die Linke also gained, but they are pro-Russian far leftists who are successors to the SeD that used to rule East Germany.
Is Die Linke still pro-Russia? I thought Sahra Wagenknecht took most of the pro-Russia faction of the party with her when she left?
Yeah, didn't the pro-Russian outcasts form their own party (which narrowly fell short of the threshold)?
Basically, BSW (Wagenknecht's party) did serve as what amounted to the pro-Russia party, though it's officially economically leftist.
That helped Die Linke, as it shed some of the stigma of being the East Germany nostalgist party and gained some more mainstream support from leftists disappointed with the Social Dems/Greens.
Die Linke did well because their pro-Ruasian faction left, allowing them to present a more coherent platform. The pro Russian faction missed the 5% cutoff.
You all are wrong. The major difference between Wagenknecht's party and Die Linke is that Die Linke is the most pro-immigration party in Germany, whereas the Wagenknecht party is demogagically xenophobic. Their pro-Russian policies are identical. Look up their platforms.
Reading into it a little more, I would say that Die Linke has a nuanced (or inconstant) position on Russia, while BSW is unabashedly pro-Ruasian, but you're right that Linke is less anti-Russia than I thought.
Anti-Russia? They want a European alliance that includes Russia! And they would of course cut off support for Ukraine.
BSW also is more conservative on some social issues. Calling for a peaceful resolution with Russia doesn’t necessarily make them “pro-Russian.”
Calling for Europe to be in an alliance with Russia and cutting off any support for Ukraine as it fights against a murderous aggressor is pro-Russian. I sincerely hope those are not positions you share, because support for a kleptocracratic imperialist despotism is not at all socialist or genuinely leftist.
The left-right distinction only matters within governments that are at least somewhat democratic and accountable. It's meaningless within gangster governments.