COPENHAGEN, Feb 3 — 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 Tuesday.
Denmark has traditionally been an ardent US ally and continues to call Washington its “closest ally”, but tensions have mounted in recent weeks over Trump’s desire to take over Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.
Asked if they would describe the United States “as an ally or an adversary” given the current state of affairs, only 17 per cent said they considered the United States an “ally”, according to a new poll, DR reported.
Twenty per cent of respondents answered that they didn’t know and three per cent said they did not wish to answer.
Trump in January backed down from his threats to seize the Arctic territory, which, through Denmark, is a member of the EU and 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 January 21 and 28.
On January 17, thousands of Danes joined a protest march from central Copenhagen to the US embassy to protest against Trump’s push to take over Greenland.
On Saturday, thousands again marched on the US embassy in Copenhagen, this time in a silent protest organised by Denmark’s Veterans’ Association after Donald Trump downplayed the role of non-US Nato troops in Afghanistan. — AFP
