April 5, 2025
by Mark Tiler Richmond, Bricklyn Eagle Politics & Law Correspondent and Duane Sandville, Outland Affairs Correspondent
Other related posts from The Bricklyn Eagle with most recent listed first:
- “Save Democracy” Meetings Held as Bricklyn Weighs Association With France and Denmark
- Bricklyn Reaches Landmark Agreement to Join French Republic AND Danish Realm
- Historic “Integration Conversations” Held as Bricklyn Eyes French Status
- Federal Chancellor Mum on Bricklyn Plans to Block Possible Mass Deportations
© News Øresund – Sofie Paisley (CC BY 3.0).
Word leaked yesterday that Denmark’s Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, would be withdrawing Denmark from a draft agreement with Bricklyn and France to integrate half of the Realm of Bricklyn into the Danish Kingdom and half into the French Republic.
According to an unnamed source within the Danish government, Frederiksen and others in leadership positions had grown increasingly concerned that the draft agreement for Bricklyn to associate with Denmark (as well as with France) might trigger action by U.S. President Donald Trump to further escalate tariffs placed on Denmark and “raise the temperature” over control of Greenland, currently a part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
In response to requests from The Bricklyn Eagle and other media outlets for comment, Victor Berger, spokesperson for the Danish Foreign Ministry, this morning acknowledged that Denmark would, in fact, be withdrawing from the proposed trilateral agreement.
As Berger explained, “It was determined there was not sufficient support in the Folketing [Danish Parliament] to approve the agreement with Bricklyn. After conferring with our colleagues in France and in Bricklyn, it was concluded that we would withdraw from the proposed agreement, while France would move forward with offering to integrate all of the Realm of Bricklyn into the French Republic.”
Navigating its way with the new American administration has proven tricky for Denmark, especially given U.S. President Trump’s repeated statements about acquiring Greenland and his tariff threats.
According to reporting from the BBC, “Faced with what many in Denmark are calling Trump’s ‘provocation,’ [Prime Minister] Frederiksen has broadly attempted to strike a conciliatory tone, repeatedly referring to the U.S. as ‘Denmark’s closest partner’. … Frederiksen’s comments also speak to the Danish resolve not to meddle in the internal affairs of Greenland -– an autonomous territory with its own parliament and whose population is increasingly leaning towards independence.”
Just two days ago Frederiksen, visiting Greenland, pleaded with the Trump administration to not seek to annex Greenland:
Yet Greenland has also had, at times, a rocky relationship with Denmark, aggravated by revelations about past “colonial abuses” in Denmark’s dealing with Greenlanders.
Danish foreign policy analyst Rolf Jorgensen told us that “Incorporating Bricklyn– albeit a sliver of America less than 0.25 acres in size — into Denmark likely came to be viewed by Frederiksen and others as unnecessarily provocative to the United Sates, like waving a red flag at an angry bull.”
“What’s more,” explained Jorgensen, “Danish concerns about the fate of Bricklynites concerned about being deported from their homeland have been assuaged by the fact that France, a much larger and more powerful nation than Denmark, has indicated its willingness to incorporate the entire Realm of Bricklyn into the French Republic. This has offered a face-saving way for Denmark to exit from the draft trilateral agreement.”
The Bricklyn Eagle has also confirmed from sources within the French Ministry of the Overseas that France remains committed to having Bricklyn join France as an overseas territory, allowing Bricklyn to retain autonomy over its domestic affairs, while providing the Vermont-based LEGO realm the security and economic benefits of being integrated into the French Republic.
The Bricklyn Eagle has reached out to Bricklyn’s Department of Outland Affairs for comment on this latest twist. We have been told that Secretary Guillaume de Bricklain will issue a statement later in the day, which we will publish as soon as it is available. ✥
Update: April 5, 2025, 8 pm EDT
Statement by Department of Outland Affairs Secretary Guillaume de Bricklain
The Bricklyn Department of Outland Affairs was informed this morning by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Denmark will not be participating in an agreement that would have associated half of the Realm of Bricklyn with the Kingdom of Denmark, and half with the Republic of France.
While we regret this decision, we are heartened that the French government has reaffirmed its commitment to Bricklyn, and has agreed to the incorporation of the entire Realm of Bricklyn into the French Republic as an overseas territory. This will provide Bricklyn, during these turbulent times, with important security guarantees, as well as economic benefits. As previously negotiated, the agreement with France will run for a term of four years, with the possibility of it subsequently being made permanent.
The Realm of Bricklyn, in turn, will promote the membership of the five French Lego realms in the League of Inland Cities, the powerful LEGO-based trading block headquartered here in Bricklyn.
I also want to note that we have kept key officials in the Vermont Governor’s Office; the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office; and the Vermont Legislature informed of our negotiations. I am happy to report that Vermont’s leaders have been fully supportive of our arrangement with France, which will not in any way adversely affect Vermont.
In fact, the enhanced tourism expected from citizens of France and other EU countries coming to Bricklyn as a result of this agreement will also benefit Vermont, especially the state’s Outerlands area close to the Bricklyn / Vermont border.
I can also announce today that Brick Air has agreed to start daily nonstop flights between Bricklyn and Paris, France, within two months of the adoption of this agreement. This will be welcome news for the LEGO realms of both France and Bricklyn.
Finally, I want to make special mention of the invaluable help provided during this process by members of the Bricklyn Chapter of the Alliance Française. We look forward to their continued active engagement with the upcoming referendum.
What remains to be done, of course, is for the Bricklyn / France agreement to be ratified, first by the French parliament — with a vote expected on Tuesday, April 22nd — and then by the citizens of Bricklyn through a referendum, now scheduled for Tuesday, April 29th.
The Bricklyn Department of Outland Affairs will continue to provide updates as necessary.
Thank you. Merci.
Guillaume de Bricklain, Secretary Bricklyn Department of Outland Affairs
We welcome Letters to the Editor. Please email to: bricklynvt@gmail.com
To the Editor: As a former member of the Folketing, I want to raise another issue that I am certain played into the concerns of at least some members of our parliament when reviewing the proposed Bricklyn-Denmark-France agreement. What I’m talking about may well be, as you may call it, the “elephant in the room.” It is about memories of the departure 45 years ago of thousands of our LEGO peoples from Denmark to a new home in the American state of Vermont. In emigrating, they blamed Danes — among the most tolerant people in the world — for intolerance of their (ironically called) “human rights.”
Let’s not sweep under the rug the raw feelings many Danes still have when considering the ingratitude of thousands of LEGO people leaving their Danish homeland, the country that gave birth to them, so to speak — though more accurately these so-called people are simply plastic “minifigures” designed and manufactured here.
While we admire what Bricklynites have made of their American enclave, and understand their concerns about the new American president, it is still hard for some of us to let go of grievances about their emigration from Denmark to Bricklyn, though that singular event happened many years ago. — H. Christian Andersen, Bilund, Denmark.
To the Editor: I’m not going to say “I told you so,” but … . The bottom line is that Denmark for a variety of reasons has now made the right decision in withdrawing from an agreement that initially was to be just between Bricklyn and France. There will be no need for a border splitting the Realm of Bricklyn in half. Instead all of Bricklyn will become a part of the French Republic as an honored overseas territory. Of course, we Bricklynites will retain full autonomy in all our internal affairs, and the role of our Federal Council will change only in terms of dealing with the Outland world. Now we have a referendum to pass in three weeks! — Bill Tiler French, Bricklyn Jct., VT.
To the Editor: As a proud Vermonter, but these days an embarrassed American, I’m glad that Bricklyn officials have apparently worked out a security arrangement with France. The people of France , Vermont, and Bricklyn share the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity. We welcomed the heroic Marquis de Lafayette to Vermont in 1825 , and look forward to Bricklynites being able to welcome their new French compatriots soon. — M.L, South Burlington, VT.
To the Editor: I must take exception to the comments to the editor left by Mr. H. Christian Anderson, as well as the failure of the Folketing to allow half of Bricklyn to associate with Denmark as a semi-autonomous territory in the Danish Realm. If the Folketing’s inaction was due, as Anderson suggests, to long-held grievances against the LEGO people who emigrated to Bricklyn in the early 1980s, we should look at ourselves in the mirror and recall that we denied the LEGO people of Denmark the human rights expressly set out in our Constitution. Unfortunately, the broader language in the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), was not incorporated into Danish law until 1992.
📍 Article 10 of the ECHR provides that “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”
The Supreme Court of Denmark should never have so narrowly construed the rights set out in our Constitution so as not to apply to our own LEGO people, people who have brought so many economic benefits to our country.
It should not be surprising that thousands of LEGO people chose to emigrate in the late 1970s and early ’80s instead of tolerating second-class status where they were denied the freedom to hold opinions critical of Danish government policies and workplace conditions — and during which time several LEGO individuals were even imprisoned. — Oliver Hansen, Advokat, Lund & Hansen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
