Greenlanders have voted for change in yesterday's parliamentary election. Leftist pro-independence Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) has suffered a blow, only receiving 34.4% of the popular vote and 11 seats, far from 43.7% they got in 2009. Their current partners in government, Demokraatit, have also lost ground with only 6.2% of the votes (12.7% in 2009) and 2 seats. This means IA leader Kuupik Kleist will no longer be the prime minister of Greenland.

Current main opposition party Siumut has won the election with 42.8% of the votes and 14 out of 31 seats in the Greenlandic Parliament. Siumut had been the government party in Greenland for 30 years until 2009, when they lost to IA. Now, Siumut leader Aleqa Hammond (left image) is posed to become Greenland's first ever female prime minister, if she is able to forge an agreement with one of two Greenland's minor parties. One option is an agreement with conservative Atassut (8.1% of the votes, 2 seats), the other one is socialist Partii Inuit (6.4% of the votes, 2 seats).

Siumut had traditionally favored autonomy for Greenland within Denmark. Later on, the party adopted a more sovereignist position and proposed the establishment of a Greenlandic state in free association with Denmark. Last month, Hammond said to the Danish national radio that Siumut now favored full independence.

Limits to the arrival of foreign workers

Both Siumut and IA have explained that they rely on revenues from mining to develop a self-sufficient economy for Greenland. But both parties have different approaches.

As this BBC article explains, IA wants to import foreign labour -mainly Chinese- to mine iron ore. Digital newspaper Nunatsiaq digs deeper and explains that IA had given permission to a Chinese-backed company to mine ore in Isua, a plan that needs 3,000 workers. 2,700 of them would be foreigners, a growth of 5% of the total Greenlandic population.

Siumut, on the contrary, has pledged to nullify this permission. The party fears that a massive arrival of foreign workers could have a negative impact on Greenlandic traditional lifestyle. Siumut also plans to introduce more taxes to foreign mining companies.

Debate on uranium

The mining debate is also very heated on the issue of uranium. IA opposes uranium mining, and in fact it is currently banned in Greenland. But Siumut thinks that this policy should be relaxed. Austalian-based Greenland Minerals and Energy (GME) has interest in opening a commercial mine on Kvanefjeld, a site of a mineral deposit in the south of Greenland. The site has deposits of zinc, rare-earths but also uranium.

Siumut government could mean that GME would finally be allowed to mine Kvanefjeld. But this is not an easy choice. According to a SIPRI report, there are fears in Greenland that uranium mining could have a negative environmental impact. The report also highlights doubts about Greenland's curent real ability to manage a delicate product like this one, especially if one takes into account the uses that buyers can make of it.