Majority of Danes now see US as adversary: Poll
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Only 17 per cent said they considered the United States an “ally”, according to a new poll.
PHOTO: REUTERS
COPENHAGEN - Sixty per cent of Danes now consider the United States an adversary, with less than a fifth seeing the fellow NATO member as an ally, a poll conducted for public broadcaster DR showed on Feb 3.
Denmark has traditionally been an ardent US ally and continues to call Washington its “closest ally”, but tensions have mounted in recent weeks over US President Donald Trump’s desire to take over Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.
Asked if they would describe the US “as an ally or an adversary”, given the current state of affairs, only 17 per cent said they considered it an “ally”, according to a new poll, DR reported.
Twenty per cent of respondents answered that they did not know and 3 per cent said they did not wish to answer.
Mr Trump in January backed down from his threats to seize the Arctic territory, which, through Denmark, is a member of NATO.
His threats plunged the transatlantic alliance into its deepest crisis in years.
The poll was conducted by analyst firm Epinion which surveyed 1,053 Danes over the age of 18 between Jan 21 and Jan 28.
On Jan 17, thousands of Danes joined a protest march from central Copenhagen to the US embassy to protest against Mr Trump’s push to take over Greenland.
On Jan 32, thousands again marched on the US embassy in Copenhagen, this time in a silent protest organised by Denmark’s Veterans’ Association after Mr Trump downplayed the role of non-US NATO troops in Afghanistan. AFP
