Jonathan Motzfeldt

Who was Jonathan Motzfeldt?

Jonathan Motzfeldt was the first and third Prime Minister of Greenland.

From 1979 to 1988, in 1997 and from 2003 to 2008, he was Chairman of the Greenland Landsting. He was prime minister twice, from 1 May 1979 to 18 March 1991 and from 19 September 1997 to 14 December 2002. At the time of his death Motzfeldt was the current president of the West Nordic Council.

After having placed himself at the forefront of the political emancipation process that Greenland's population began in earnest in the early 1970s, Motzfeldt became synonymous with the Greenland Home Rule. In the same manner as he stepped forward borne on the shoulders of the true pioneers of the independence movement, he secured almost absolute power through a series of spectacular and often quite brutal political cleansing processess. In these purges old comrades like Lars Emil Johansen, Moses Olsen, Lars Chemnitz and Emil Abelsen were pushed into the political sidelines.

After a prolonged period with an increasingly uncontrolled alcohol abuse, and a series of spectacular scandals Motzfeldt was forced to resign as Prime Minister in 1991.