HISTORIC GREENLANDIC ELECTIONS USHER IN NEW

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 COPENHAGEN 000253

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR P, EUR, EUR/NB, AND OES

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL DA
SUBJECT: HISTORIC GREENLANDIC ELECTIONS USHER IN NEW
GENERATION OF LEADERSHIP

REF: A. 08 COPENHAGEN 614

B. 07 COPENHAGEN 1010


1. (SBU) Summary: Greenlanders, in an historic June 2
election, threw out the ruling party that has held the reins
of government in Greenland for the last 30 years. The
decisive winner was Greenland's largest left-wing opposition
party, which ran a skillful campaign focused on addressing
Greenland's many pressing social needs. The election also
ratified a generational change in Greenlandic politics, with
some of Greenland's most senior politicians pushed into
retirement by a younger and better educated slate of
newcomers, many of whom were standing for election for the
first time. Greenland must now form a government that can
deliver on voters' clear desire for change. The election
provides the United States with a unique opportunity, as a
new generation of Greenlanders steps up, to intensify our
engagement with Greenland and shape the attitudes of a
political generation that expect in their careers to see
Greenland emerge as an independent Arctic nation. End
Summary.


2. (U) Greenlanders went to the polls June 2 in general
elections to the Landsting, or Greenlandic Parliament.
Although today still a dependent territory of Denmark,
Greenland has had a Home Rule Government, drawn from the
Landsting, since 1979. Since that time, the Siumut (or
"Forward" in Greenlandic) Party has held power in Greenland,
either alone or in coalition, and has for those 30 years
fielded Greenland's head of its Home Rule Government, the
Premier (equivalent to Prime Minister). However, in a
decisive break with that past, Greenlanders this week voted
Siumut out and handed Greenland's largest left-wing
opposition party, Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA, or "Inuit
Community") a landslide victory. IA garnered 43.7 percent of
the vote, nearly doubling its result from Greenland's last
Landsting election in 2005. Siumut captured 26.5 percent of
the vote, down from its 2005 result of 30.4 percent. The
result gives IA 14 seats in the 31-member Landsting, meaning
IA needs only two more seats to form a governing majority of
16 seats.


3. (U) IA's decisive win means that Kuupik Kleist, IA's
chairman, will become Greenland's next Premier. Kleist has
his pick of two potential coalition partners -- the
Democrats, who will have four seats in the upcoming
Landsting, and Atassut ("Solidarity"),who will have three.
The Democrats and Atassut are center-right parties that have
in the past sometimes clashed with IA, particularly on
economic and business issues. However, before the election
both parties indicated their willingness to work with IA in a
coalition. Kleist, in the hours following his party's
victory, announced that he would under no circumstances allow
Siumut into a new IA-led coalition.


4. (SBU) Kleist and IA owe their win to a savvy campaign that
both addressed Greenlandic voters' desire for a break with
Siumut policies, and brought a young and diverse slate of
candidates that injected dynamism into the election debate.
Eight of IA's Landsting members will be women, as was half
its candidate slate. Siumut, by contrast, was widely
criticized even within its own ranks for its small number of
women candidates. IA also recruited younger, well-educated
Greenlanders in their 20's and 30's to balance against older,
more established party members. IA's success was all the
more significant in that it performed well not only in Nuuk,
the capital, but in Greenland's many small and remote towns
and villages, traditional Siumut strongholds.


5. (SBU) Siumut also had the disadvantage of running against
its own governing record, which for the past four years has
been moribund, particularly on difficult domestic social
issues like child poverty and neglect, declining education
standards, and an eroding health care system. Siumut not
only failed to adequately address these issues, it also
throughout the campaign was frequently confronted with one
scandal after another, from allegations of corrupion and
nepotism to abuse of expense accounts tomanipulation of Home
Rule administered companies. In the end, Siumut seemed
unable to muster a coherent political message, leaving the
field wide open for IA's better-run, more tightly focused
campaign.


6. (SBU) Comment: Kleist now has the difficult task of
delivering on the high expectations set by IA during the
campaign, and he may choose both the Democrats and Atassut as
coalition partners to build the broadest possible majorities
for what are likely to be tough fights as IA moves to roll
back entrenched Siumut policies and patronage networks. In

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so doing Kleist will no doubt call on a new generation of
Greenlanders to offer fresh policies and a more technocratic
approach to implementing them. Many of IA's candidates are
completely new to politics, and this election offered special
significance for them since it is the first Landsting to be
seated under Greenland's new Self Governance Agreement with
Denmark, which enters into force June 21 (ref A). Young
Greenlanders thus see this election as an opportunity to draw
a line under 30 years of Siumut rule, and most feel confident
that with further economic development they could be the
generation that creates an independent Greenland.


7. (SBU) Comment Continued: The election also offers the
United States the opportunity to step up its engagement in
Greenland, and cement ties to a new generation of Greenlandic
political leaders. In an April 23 meeting in Nuuk with
Charge, Kleist told us that he values Greenland's emerging
ties to the United States and welcomes the opportunity to
work with us through fora like the U.S.-Greenland-Denmark
Joint Committee. Kleist seemed determined to establish his
international credentials with us, noting in fluent English
that he had previously led Greenland's nascent Department of
Foreign Affairs in the late 1990s, and showing interest in
how Greenland could better use other regional fora like the
Arctic Council to advance Greenland's interests. Kleist told
us he would welcome more educational exchange opportunities
with U.S. high schools and universities, and he voiced the
hope that USG agencies would continue to commit serious
resources to Joint Committee activities. We believe that
Kleist is sincere in wanting to maintain a close relationship
with the U.S. and we see opportunities to help better inform
the views of some of his new Landsting colleagues, whether
through vehicles like IV programs or USG technical
assistance. Finally, we see the new Greenlandic government
as the latest example of why the USG should have at least a
seasonal presence on the ground in Nuuk. Our proposal for an
American Presence Post, staffed seasonally by Embassy
Copenhagen personnel (ref B),would be a relatively low cost,
high impact way to enhance our influence with Greenland's new
government.


8. (U) Bio Note for Kuupik Kleist. Born Jakob Edvard Kuupik
Kleist, March 31, 1958 in Qullissat, Greenland. Attended
primary schools in Qullissat and Sisimiut, Greenland.
Attended high school in Birkerod Public School in Denmark and
received a masters degree in sociology from Roskilde
University in Denmark in 1983. Deputy Director of the
Greenland Home Rule Government's Department of Education from
1985 - 1988. Director of journalism education in Nuuk from
1988 - 1991. Director and Minister of Home Rule's Department
of Foreign Affairs from 1996 - 1999. Political posts include
Minister of Public Works and Transport from 1991 - 1995, and
Member of the Danish Parliament representing Greenland from
2001 - 2007. Chairman of Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) political
party since 2007. Kleist was also a member of the
Danish-Greenlandic Self Governance Commission, which drafted
the new Self Governance Agreement, from 2004 - 2008. Kleist
speaks Greenlandic, Danish, and English. Single, no children.
MCCULLEY