Aleqa Hammond on the Section 21 Commission: Siumut bets on the draft constitution

2026 is the working year for the Section 21 Commission, where the two international law experts Ole Spiermann from Denmark and Gudmundur Alfredsson from Iceland will examine each step of the Self-Government Act Chapter 8 with the all-important heading »Greenland's access to independence«.

This was stated by Naalakkersuisut Chairman Jens-Frederik Nielsen in his New Year's speech.

– I believe that it is important at all times to focus on the preparations for Greenland's independence, Siumut chairman Aleqa Hammond states in a subdued comment to Sermitsiaq.

Inatsisartut made a decision on the Section 21 Commission at the spring session of 2024, and the new four-leaf clover coalition promised in March 2025 to complete the commission's work, but Aleqa Hammond did not make her spectacular comeback on the political stage until June 2025.

Aleqa Hammond has not been a member of Naalakkersuisut or Inatsisartut since 2014, and she has no stake in the establishment of the Section 21 Commission. As party chairwoman, however, she has her own priorities, which weigh the Constitutional Commission more heavily than the Section 21 Commission.

Deadlock in 2025

After six years and 30 million kroner, the Constitutional Commission submitted its draft constitution in April 2023. Siumut's then-Naalakkersuisoq for Independence Vivian Motzfeldt held citizen meetings about the draft constitution in towns and villages on the West Coast in the fall of 2024.

After the elections on 11 March 2025, independence was transferred to Naalakkersuisut chairman Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and the draft constitution is not mentioned in a single word in the coalition agreement between Demokraatit, Inuit Ataqatigiit, Siumut and Atassut from 28 March 2025.

Aleqa Hammond will bring the draft constitution out of its impasse.

– The most important step towards independence is for politicians to travel the country thinly with the draft constitution, believes Aleqa Hammond.

Why this order, when the constitution only comes into force when Greenland becomes an independent state, where the Section 21 Commission is supposed to show the way?

– It is the population that decides whether we are ready to take the next step or not. Therefore, it is important that we discuss, debate, and comment on the draft constitution, where we also raise sub-points for discussion among the population. A decision must be made on an informed basis and with ownership by the population, and such a large task must be placed at the top of the priority list in political work.

We already said yes in 2008

From the start, Section 21 states with 7-inch precision that "the decision on Greenland's independence shall be made by the Greenlandic people", but the very first word "decision" opens up for interpretations: Either Inatsisartut and Nalakkersuisut decide to press the Section 21 button on their own, or the population decides in a referendum to initiate negotiations on independence with Denmark.

The National Council in the 70s and the County Council in the 00s addressed the Danish government directly, and it was only the negotiation results on home rule in 1979 and self-government in 2009 that came to a referendum.

Should we hold a preliminary referendum on the start of negotiations, or should we wait for a final referendum on the outcome of the negotiations?

– This mandate to activate Section 21 has already been given by the population to Inatsisartut in connection with the referendum on self-government on November 28 2008, responds Aleqa Hammond.

An extensive information campaign preceded the referendum 17 years ago, and the Self-Government Act with Section 21 was printed on large posters that hung on refrigerator doors and bulletin boards.

In the ballot box, voters had to answer "Yes" or "No" to the question: Do you want self-government to be introduced in Greenland with the content and conditions outlined in the Greenlandic-Danish Self-Government Commission's draft Self-Government Act?

Voters could therefore have no doubt that a "Yes" to self-government was also a "Yes" to Greenland's access to independence. 75.5 percent of voters voted "Yes", and Aleqa Hammond believes, referring to the voters' mandate from 2008, that a referendum on independence should apply to the negotiation result.

Ownership to independence

The next step in Section 21 is a negotiation between the Greenland Government and the Danish Government on the implementation of independence.

The Danish/Greenlandic Self-Government Commission assumed in its report from 2008 that the negotiations between Naalakkersuisut and the government must be conducted in a meaningful manner, where the parties must strive to mutually accommodate each other.

– In my opinion, the negotiations with Denmark will be the easiest task on the path towards Greenland's independence, Aleqa Hammond assesses.

The negotiations concern ownership of state installations and buildings, including the new facility in Nuuk worth half a billion kroner. It also concerns citizenship for Danes in Greenland and Greenlanders in Denmark; it concerns civil servants and pension obligations; it concerns previously concluded agreements between the Greenland Government and the government. And finally, it concerns an agreement on the economic relations between Denmark and an independent Greenland.

This year marks exactly 50 years since Prime Minister Anker Jørgensen said the infamous words "There is nothing to be ashamed of".

Today, Mette Frederiksen is striking a completely different tone, although she will go to great lengths to avoid becoming the prime minister who makes the trip from Christiansborg to Amalienborg to tell Frederik X that he has just lost 98 percent of his kingdom.

Most recently, Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen have signed an agreement worth 1.6 billion kroner for healthcare services in Denmark and a deep-water port and regional airport in Greenland.

It is the agreement between the Greenlandic Government and the government, and not the constitution, that, according to Section 21, will be put to a final referendum in Greenland. With the agreement in hand, everyone can ascertain what independence means in terms of dollars and cents and everything in between.

“The most difficult task is to ensure that everyone in the country has the opportunity to be part of the movement, so that they have ownership of this process. This requires political unity and an impartial discussion about Greenland’s independence,” calls for Aleqa Hammond.