Greenland calls March 11 elections as Arctic island fields US interest

By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen

NUUK (Reuters) -Greenland's prime minister announced on Tuesday that the semi-autonomous Danish territory will hold a general election on March 11 amid interest by U.S. President Donald Trump in acquiring the Arctic island.

The top issues in the election campaign are expected to be Greenland's independence aspirations and relations with Denmark and the United States as well as the fragile economy which depends on fishing and Danish grants.

Reviving an idea he floated during his first term in 2019, Trump last month expressed a desire to "get" the strategically significant island, leaving open the possibility of using military or economic force to achieve this.

Greenland, which has vast untapped mineral resources, has said it is open for business but does not wish to be part of the United States.

In response to Trump's interest and fears of foreign intervention, legislators on Tuesday moved to ban foreign and anonymous political party donations.

U.S. interest also prompted lawmakers to tighten regulations on foreign real estate and property investments this week.

"We are in the midst of a serious time. A time that we have never experienced in our country. This is not the time for internal division," Prime Minister Mute Egede said in a social media post that did not mention Trump.

A movement towards full independence from former colonial ruler Denmark has gathered momentum in recent years.

Egede, who turns 38 on the day of the election, supports independence but has not proposed a plan to achieve this. He heads a government coalition of his own left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit party and the social-democratic Siumut party.

While all five parliamentary parties support independence, they differ on how and when this should be achieved. Only the opposition party Naleraq, which currently holds five seats in the 31-seat parliament, wants to sever ties with Denmark immediately.

"The most important part of our election campaign will be to start the process of independence from Denmark," Naleraq party leader Pele Broberg told Reuters.

A majority of Greenlanders would vote for independence if such a referendum were held now, according to a recent survey by pollster Verian, commissioned by the Danish newspaper Berlingske and Greenlandic daily Sermitsiaq.

However, the poll also showed that 45% would oppose independence if it negatively affected living standards, indicating that the path towards independence remains uncertain.

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Louise Rasmussen in Copenhagen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Nuuk, editing by Terje Solsvik, Rod Nickel and Cynthia Osterman)