‘Last chance’ for the kingdom: Greenlandic MP demands constitutional overhaul
Naaja H. Nathanielsen is calling for a constitutional commission and reconciliation, saying time is running out to reform the kingdom from within.
Newly elected Greenlandic member of the Danish Parliament Naaja H. Nathanielsen is pushing for sweeping reforms to the constitutional relationship between Greenland and Denmark, warning that failure to act could fracture the kingdom within years.
Nathanielsen, who represents Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) and previously served as Greenland’s minister for industry, mineral resources, energy, justice and gender equality, won her seat in the March parliamentary elections. Her central demand is the establishment of a constitutional commission, with full participation from both Greenland and the Faroe Islands, to rewrite the terms of the Commonwealth of the Realm.
Under the current arrangement, Greenland and the Faroe Islands each hold just two seats in the 179-member Danish Parliament and Copenhagen retains sole authority over foreign and security policy on behalf of the entire realm.
“If the wish is to preserve the kingdom, you need to get out of the starting blocks and begin reforming it,” Nathanielsen told Greenlandic broadcaster KNR. She called the moment “close to last chance.”
Standing as equals
Nathanielsen argues that standing together requires standing as equals. She pointed to a January incident in which members of Inatsisartut, Greenland’s parliament, were excluded from a classified Danish Foreign Policy Board meeting whose sole agenda item was the realm’s relationship with the United States. Greenland’s two North Atlantic MPs sit on the board but are bound by confidentiality rules that prevent them from sharing information with colleagues back home.
“There is an imbalance when, as a member of the Danish Parliament, you can get more information about what is happening around Greenland than you can as a politician in Inatsisartut,” she said.
Nathanielsen traces the structural problems to the 1953 constitutional amendment, when Greenland was converted from a colony to a Danish county. She says the change was presented as equality but never truly delivered it. Greenlanders were not given the right to vote on the amendment.
The Kingdom needs reconciliation
Beyond institutional reform, Nathanielsen is also calling for reconciliation. She wants acting Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to grant compensation to women affected by Denmark’s coercive IUD campaign in Greenland, to legally fatherless Greenlanders and to those adopted under questionable circumstances. A Greenlandic reconciliation commission was launched in 2014, but Denmark declined to participate, with then-Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt saying the country had no need for reconciliation.
“Denmark needs to be willing to look at itself and its own conduct honestly.” Nathanielsen said.
Nearly all Greenlandic political parties support eventual independence, however, most acknowledge that the population is not yet ready. Nathanielsen frames her reform agenda not as a step toward separation, but as the price of keeping the kingdom together.
“If this gets kicked down the road, I’m genuinely worried about what will happen over the next four years,” she said. “Time and again, from Greenland’s perspective, we find ourselves sidelined as spectators with no real ability to shape our own reality.”
