Coalition talks collapse over Danish subsidies issue

A clash between Sambandsflokkurin and Framsókn over the block grant from Denmark caused coalition talks to break down yesterday evening

Javnaðarflokkurin’s coalition negotiation committee pictured yesterday evening discussing their next move after the other two parties left the negotiations

Krista Johnsdóttir Kreutzmann

Elin Mirjamsdóttir

Jón Brian Hvidtfeldt

14.12.2022 - 08:43

It looked promising yesterday when Javnaðarflokkurin, Sambandsflokkurin and Framsókn had reached general agreement on 15 out of 16 potential sticking points.

However, the stickiest one of them all was saved for last – Denmark’s government subsidy to the Faroes, also known as the block grant.

As a unionist party, Sambandflokkurin insisted on making no changes to the current block grant.

This was always going to be a problem because Framsókn, which favours independence from Denmark, had as one of its key election pledges that it wanted major cuts in the block grant.

Javnaðarflokkurin, which also leans toward independence, is in charge of forming a new coalition.

Party leader Aksel V. Johannesen said yesterday that he will call republican party Tjóðveldi – whose principal political objective is independence from Denmark – in for coalition talks together with Framsókn.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.