Iceland rejects EU referendum after close neck-and-neck race

Landmark referendum

Icelanders reject EU accession negotiations

In a tight race to restart the trial, the country’s citizens are making their decision. However, the result is close.

The majority of Icelandic residents voted against resuming talks on their country’s accession to the EU. The result of the referendum was close at 52.8 to 47.2 percent of the votes, as the count showed. Around 12,000 more people voted against continuing the negotiations that were interrupted 13 years ago than in favor.

Around 270,000 people were eligible to vote landmark referendum in Iceland called. The country was particularly divided on security and fisheries issues.

The Social Democratic head of government Kristrún Frostadóttir had announced in advance that she would stick to the result of the referendum. The country, which has a population of just around 400,000, had already applied for EU membership during the financial crisis in 2009.

But after the 2013 parliamentary elections, the new EU-sceptic government put accession plans on hold.

Frostadóttir described the resumption of talks on Icelandic television shortly before the referendum as “one of the most significant steps” that could reduce risks for the island. In uncertain times like these, in which international relations are changing, the question increasingly arises as to whether a small country… Iceland should move closer to larger states and alliances.

“We see around us that countries in our neighborhood have been protected by the European Union,” said the head of government before the vote.

These statements were primarily understood as an allusion to the Greenland conflict. US President Donald Trump had repeatedly threatened to annex the Arctic island, which belongs to Denmark, to the United States – and thus triggered unrest on Iceland.

The island had in 1951 with the USA concluded a bilateral defense agreement. Iceland is a founding member of the NATObut has no army of its own. Opponents of resuming EU talks pointed out that the US agreement and NATO would be sufficient for their own security.

Had the country voted yes, it would have joined the EU and thus joined the common fisheries policy, which would allow Spanish, Dutch and other trawlers access to its waters.