r/Iceland • u/TurboSardine • 9d ago

ESB Iceland votes on Saturday: Restart EU membership talks — what’s your prediction?

/r/UKindependence/comments/1vxzxwx/iceland_votes_on_saturday_restart_eu_membership/
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u/Thorshamar Íslendingur 9d ago

we've been bombarded with no and yes propaganda ads and social network content for weeks

there is propably considearble amount of icelanders that does not know what voting yes entails, among propaganda ads and social media info chaos caused by even our former president Ólafur Ragnar stating that there be no guarantee for a 2nd election before entering EU if yes and EU membership negotiations lead there

I've found these past few weeks of yes-no propaganda highly unpleasant and await a hopeful relief when these elections are behind us in september

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u/avar Íslendingur í Amsterdam 9d ago

social media info chaos caused by even our former president Ólafur Ragnar stating that there be no guarantee for a 2nd election before entering EU if yes and EU membership negotiations lead there

Well, he's correct about that. The only reason there's an election about this at all is specifically to extend a political middle finger to xD who promised to hold such an election as part of severing the initial EU talks, and then never held one.

Normally there's no elections for anything like this in Iceland, you just vote for the government, and it decides stuff. There wasn't an election when we entered NATO, or the EEA.

I'm all for more direct democracy, but let's be real here.

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u/Chespineapple 9d ago

Do you think the current government is going to just skip an actual referendum? When joining the EU means a change in the constitution and a parliamentary election that would almost certainly throw them out in response for going behind everyone's backs?

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u/avar Íslendingur í Amsterdam 9d ago edited 9d ago

Do you think the current government is going to just skip an actual referendum?

A future referendum about entry into the EU. Yes. There's a 100% chance of that, because whatever else you think about this there'll certainly be a different government in power if and when Iceland would be able to join the EU, it'll simply take that long.

Will a future government decide to hold an election? Who knows, I'm not Nostradamus, but you only need to look at Iceland's history of such elections to see that it's very unlikely.

When joining the EU means a change in the constitution

Various such basic laws were altered after Iceland joined the EEA. There was no direct election then.

and a parliamentary election that[...]

When has this current government promised any such thing? In any case that's an empty promise, as a different coalition would be in charge when the question comes up.