The growing confrontation between Donald Trump and Europe over the American president’s demand that Denmark cede its independent area of Greenland has been discussed by Stellan Skarsgård.
During the winners’ press conference at the European Film Awards in Berlin on Saturday night, Swedish actor and Norwegian director Joachim Trier, whose home countries are Denmark’s closest neighbors, was asked about their opinions on the issue.
Skarsgård asked, “You want us to comment on what’s happening in Greenland?” before launching into his usual direct response. “It’s absurd, isn’t it? It’s a little man who got megalomania, and he’s trying to take the world. He took Venezuela, suddenly, and that’s for Chevron. He’ll take Greenland for minerals. He’s a criminal,” he said.
He was referring to reports that, following the military takeover of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in early January, the United States is attempting to extend Chevron’s license to produce oil in the country.
In light of worries that China and Russia are also interested in the frigid region, which is home to some 57,000 mostly Native Inuit people, Trump has stated that his ambition to annex Greenland is for American security. His demands, according to his detractors, are motivated more by a desire to exploit the region’s unexplored mineral wealth. Greenland is not for sale, according to Denmark and its European partners, who also declared that Trump’s tariff measures on Saturday were “unacceptable” and amounted to “blackmail.”
He added, “Sitting in Europe today. I think that what we’ve learned from history is that the idea of appropriation of other countries and the idea of colonialization is something that we suffer through guilt for in Europe, in the sense that we are trying to move forward from that idiotic idea.”
By concluding his reverie, he stated, “Denmark has come a long way in apologizing and trying to make good for their appropriation of Greenland in the past, and Greenland is for people from Greenland. So, this idea of reappropriating it for another culture, when Denmark has been very clear that America can, through NATO Alliance, protect Greenland if they feel like it in a greater military capacity, and now this is happening. I agree with Stellen that it’s an absurd notion, and international law must be respected, because grinding that down will have such tremendous domino effects on how other superpowers will treat other countries, so the dominant effect of that is extremely worrying, if it is to happen,”
