Danish Parliament tests Greenlandic translation

On Tuesday, the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) will trial simultaneous interpretation between Greenlandic and Danish during the Prime Minister’s question time. This decision by the Folketinget Presidency follows Siumut party member Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam’s resolve to only use Greenlandic in her parliamentary discourse. Folketinget has previously granted Greenlandic and Faroese members extra time for translation and a monthly subsidy for such services. Despite these allowances, Høegh-Dam’s insistence on speaking Greenlandic has reignited discussions on language use in the legislative chamber. Emphasizing Greenlandic as an official language in Denmark, she contends that equal working conditions must be ensured in the parliament. Søren Gade, the speaker of Folketinget, has estimated that a full translation setup would cost at least 200 million DKK per year, plus a 40 million DKK establishment cost.