Residents of Iceland are against the resumption of negotiations on joining the European Union. According to the results of the referendum, 52.5 percent voted against European integration, while 47.5 percent voted “for.”
During the vote count, the results for a long time showed that the country was divided on the question of its European future. Only at the last moment did opponents of closer ties with Europe prevail. The largest number of “Europeanists” was in the capital, Reykjavik, whereas residents of rural areas and fishing villages do not want to be part of the EU. Their concerns are primarily linked to the restrictions that Brussels might impose on fisheries.
In addition, many Icelanders fear a possible switch to the euro. Although the government insists that joining the eurozone would help the country solve its economic problems, opposition politicians stress that Iceland should not lose its independence.
As the Euractiv portal emphasizes, the outcome of the vote was a “serious blow to Brussels’ dreams of expanding the Union.” “The EU had hoped to combine the accession of Iceland — a rich island with the highest salaries in Europe, already largely integrated into EU legislation — with the accession of a poorer country such as Montenegro, which could potentially make enlargement more acceptable to skeptical governments,” the portal notes.
Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, observed that the result of the Icelandic referendum is highly noteworthy. “An atmosphere has seemingly taken shape in Europe that without general unification everyone will perish and skepticism is inappropriate,” he wrote on his Telegram channel. “But the stubborn islanders insist on their own course.” Lukyanov stressed that the voting result may have been influenced by the “migrant attacks on Spain.” “As for scaring Icelanders with a Russian threat, that would require methods of powerful hypnosis,” he pointed out. “The economic condition of the European Union is also far from being the most attractive factor.”
