Iceland will not reopen talks to join the European Union. The no side took 52.8% of the vote in the referendum and the yes side 47.2%, with turnout at 82.5%, according to the Guardian.
Reykjavik was the only area in a country of 400,000 where yes won a majority. The rest of the island voted against.
Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir, who had campaigned for yes at public meetings across the country, accepted the result at a press conference. “It is quite clear that this matter will not move forward under this government,” she said. Her government had billed the vote as a “now or never” moment, and she had told voters earlier in August that a no would put EU speculation to rest. Whether to submit a parliamentary resolution formally withdrawing Iceland’s membership application, she said, is still to be decided. Iceland applied in 2009 after the financial crash and walked out of talks in 2013.
Why the vote came early
The referendum was a pledge the government made on taking office. It was moved forward after Donald Trump renewed threats to invade Greenland at the start of this year. Iceland belongs to Nato, but yes campaigners argued that European solidarity would protect a small Arctic island better if Trump aimed similar threats at it. They also pointed to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
No campaigners talked about sovereignty and fishing waters. That message won.
Hulda Þórisdóttir, a politics professor at the University of Iceland, said the late stages of the campaign did not surprise her. She listed a belief that the European Economic Area is enough, a sense of Icelandic exceptionalism, economic self-interest and misinformation among the least engaged voters, one example being the claim “I don’t want my son to have to join the EU army.” But the biggest factor, in her view, was money: the no campaign was “much, much better funded.”
Reaction
Brussels had wanted a wealthy new member and seemed ready to bend on difficult subjects such as fishing. European Council president António Costa told Frostadóttir the bloc “fully respects the democratic choice” of Icelandic voters. A spokesperson added that Iceland “remains one of the EU’s closest and most trusted partners.”
Anti-EU politicians moved fast. France’s Marine Le Pen wrote on X that the result showed “another Europe is possible.” Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, congratulated Iceland on voting “to keep their independence.”
Frostadóttir said she did not take the outcome as a personal blow. She conceded that many Icelanders, especially in rural areas, worry about what membership would do to agriculture, fisheries and natural resources. “I promise that we will handle these issues well and keep these concerns in mind,” she said.
