No evidence of foreign state influence on Greenland's election, Denmark says

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Denmark's intelligence services said Tuesday that Greenland's recent election took place without any signs of influence by a foreign government.

The March 11 race attracted international attention following controversial remarks made by President Donald Trump about the strategic importance to the U.S. of the Arctic island, which is a self-governing region of Denmark.

The pro-business Demokraatit party, which favors a slow path to independence from Denmark, won a surprise victory in the parliamentary election, outpacing the two left-leaning parties that formed the last government.

The Danish Defence Intelligence Service and the Danish Police Intelligence Service said in a news release published Tuesday that their monitoring of the election did not show any evidence of a foreign government or foreign intelligence service attempting to influence the results through systematic and coordinated campaigns.

Misinformation on social media, however, was rampant, the organizations said. There were many instances where fake profiles were set up, including those pretending to be Danish or Greenlandic politicians, or false or manipulated information was shared online.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the likely new prime minister, has rejected Trump’s effort to take control of the island, saying Greenlanders must be allowed to decide their own future as it moves toward independence from Denmark. With most Greenlanders opposing Trump’s overtures, the campaign focused more on issues such as healthcare and education than on geopolitics.

Trump is focused on Greenland because it straddles strategic air and sea routes in the North Atlantic and is home to the U.S.’s Pituffik Space Base, which supports missile warning and space surveillance operations. Greenland also has large deposits of the rare-earth minerals needed to make everything from mobile phones to renewable energy technology.

The island has a population of 56,000 people, most from Indigenous Inuit backgrounds.