Almost 53% have said ‘no’ to reopening negotiations with Brussels, public broadcaster RUV has reported
Iceland has narrowly rejected the idea of resuming talks on joining the EU, public broadcaster RUV has reported. Previous negotiations were halted 13 years ago.
The referendum on Saturday saw a high turnout, with more than 225,000 people out of a population of just over 394,000 coming to the polls.
After the ballot count concluded on Sunday, RUV announced that 52.8% said ‘no’ to resuming accession talks, while 47.2% backed the idea.
The ballot asked voters just a single question: “Should Iceland resume accession negotiations with the European Union?”
The country’s capital Reykjavik voted ‘Yes’, while people in rural areas were overwhelmingly against the EU path, underlining a split between the two parts of the country.
Russian presidential investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev has welcomed the outcome of the referendum, saying in a post on X that “Iceland knows how to play great football and how to reject the failing EU’s migrants, bureaucrats, and warmongering.”
Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir promised to hold a referendum by 2027, but moved it to an earlier date due to geopolitical tensions, including US President Donald Trump’s threats to annex neighboring Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
In January, Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Iceland, Billy Long, suggested that country could become the “52nd state” of the US, with himself as governor. However, he later apologized and called it a joke.
Before the vote, Frostadottir’s allies portrayed the EU as additional protection for the country, while Euroskeptics argued that Brussels itself was becoming increasingly militarized and confrontational. Iceland is already a founding NATO member and maintains extensive military ties with Washington.
Supporters of restarting the talks also argued that closer EU integration could bring greater economic and currency stability, while giving the country more influence over rules it already adopts through the European Economic Area.
Opponents focused heavily on sovereignty, agriculture, and above all, Iceland’s fishing grounds, warning that membership could subject the strategically vital industry to the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy.
The leader of the Heimssyn eurosceptic movement, Haraldur Olafsson, told Ruptly before the referendum that Brussels was “definitely a greater threat to the sovereignty of Iceland than any other superpower in the world.”
The US only asks for an area for a military base in the country and a government that “isn’t very hostile” to Washington, while the EU “wants to govern the county. They want to set the law,” he explained.
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