When Mette Vennegaard, a retired psychologist north of Copenhagen, wanted to vacate her pantry of all American products, she wrote to the largest manufacturer of Denmark, Toms Group, and asked where the company moved from its almonds for its popular marzipan products.
Marzipan, a sweet paste made of ground almonds, is a popular filling in chocolate and an important ingredient in some of the most popular desserts Denmark.
When the company replied that its care came from California, which produced 80 percent of the almonds in the world, Vennegaard put the product on her “not buying”.
She then went on and published the company’s letter in a Facebook group and asked other Danes to also clearly control.
“I examine the possession of all types of different products,” she told CBC News. “If you are Americans, don’t go to the shopping basket.”
Boycotting US products
Vennegaard is part of an emerging group of Danes that try to shorten or reduce the number of American products and services that use them – a protest against US President Donald Trump and in particular what seems to be obsessive determination to take on Greenland, an autonomous territory that participates in the Denmark Kingdom.
Tens of thousands of Danes have joined a Facebook group that has joined the parts of advice to avoid products and the purchase of local products.
People publish people by refusing their trips to the USA or their subscriptions for American streaming services.
Others are looking for shopping tips, such as a woman who wanted to know whether Miracle Whip, a mayonnaise-like spice, was carried out in the USA, and if so, what a suitable replacement would be.
While the boycott group is a base movement, political experts say that it takes up the current mood in Denmark, where the population of almost six million from the USA feels and is even threatened, a country that previously regarded one of its strongest allies.
Trump has repeatedly sworn to be able to approach the mineral -rich Greenland and promised his 56,000 inhabitants that Washington could make them rich. In his marathon speech before the US Congress at the beginning of this month, the president said the United States would get it “Either way in the other way.”
US delegation scales the return trip in the middle of protests
Usha Vance, the wife of the US Vice President JD Vance, should visit Greenland this week to take up cultural sites and a dog elder race, but after officials in the region described them as a “provocation”, the travel route of the trip was restored.
Vance, who is now accompanied by her husband, will only visit the Petenuffik Space Base, a remote US military installation in the northwest of Greenland, which takes over the missile defense and monitoring the rocket defense and space surveillance.
While officials from Greenland and Denmark consider the change in the travel route as victory, there are still profound concerns about what Trump said and what he may intend.
After US President Donald Trump threatens to take over Greenland, the country’s prime minister has called for a visit to a US delegation as a provocation and very aggressive visit. The Americans on the trip include the national security advisor Mike Waltz and Usha Vance, the wife of the Vice President.
“I boycott animals because of the way Trump carries out himself, including his aggressive treatment of Ukraine … and the threats to be able to annex Greenland,” said Vennegaard.
“My grandchildren were told that there will be no Coca-Cola, Pringles, American chocolate bars and visits to McDonald’s in the next four years.”
Vennegaard joined the Boycott Group in February and admits that the use of Facebook, a company with headquarters in California, is unhappy, but she said it was difficult to replace the range of the platform.
No more Netflix or California wine
Bo Albertus, a headmaster who outside of Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, lives, helped to create the group. He insists that it is not about being against Americans, but against the government you elected.
He started his boycott in January by terminating his subscriptions for Netflix, Disney, Apple TV, HBO and Amazon Prime. Instead, he signed a local Danish streaming service and dug its old DVDs.
The California red wine, which Albertus served on Friday evening, has now been replaced by bottles from Italy.
He said he had not found an alternative for his favorite grille sauce, but he just has to live without her.
“There is no 100 percent boycott,” said Albertus in a telephone interview from Denmark. “But we are 92,000 people who choose what to do with our money.”
The campaign for expenditure on consciousness has led to a new interest in Danish and European products.
Denmark’s largest supermarket operator, Salling Group, marked the labels of all European products with a black star this month after receiving so many inquiries from customers where certain products were manufactured.
There are contributions in the Facebook group that express solidarity with some other destinations of Trump. A published picture that shows the flags of Canada, Greenland and Denmark is “red and white next to each other.
Trump repeatedly said that Canada should become the 51st state and his team’s rhetoric towards Greenland escalates.
Trump repeated on Wednesday that the United States needs the strategically located island for international security.
“I think we’ll go as far as we have to go,” he said to journalists. “We need Greenland and the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark.”
Pressure builds on the government
Trump, who has been fixed on Greenland for years, proposed in his first term as president in 2019 that the United States wanted to buy the territory.
When the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen released this idea as “absurd”, he called it “evil” and canceled a planned visit to the country.
Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, professor of political science at the University of Copenhagen, said despite Trump’s earlier comments that the Danish government was “more than a little surprised” that things play out as they are, and he believes that it put up pressure that the government took up a harder attitude.
“We Danes are patient people, but I think it gradually runs out,” said Rasmussen in an interview about Zoom.
Denmark has been a strong supporter of the United States in the past, and Danish troops fought and died alongside American armed forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Rasmussen said there was the feeling that the USA and Denmark were close allies and that the countries had a mutual understanding of each other.
For many, this term has now been broken.
On Thursday, Frederiksen said that Denmark really wants to work with the USA in defense and security, but it is clear that “Greenland is one of the Greenland people”.
When the pressure builds on the fact that the government occupies a harder attitude towards the Trump administration, some Danish citizens do that through their shopping habits.
While Rasmussen said he had not yet given up his California Pinot Noir, he understands why others have it.
“We love electric cars in this country, but we don’t really buy Teslas,” he said. “People try to do their own foreign policy. The only thing they can really do is talk to each other or to choose different products.”
