Poll shows Icelanders more keen to join EU

More Icelanders are now in favour of joining the European Union, according to a new poll that marks a shift in thinking in the country at a time the government has signalled it may want better relations with the EU bloc.

While the current government of the conservative Independence Party, the agrarian Progressive Party, and the Left-Green Movement of Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir historically oppose EU membership, interest among Icelanders is growing.

The latest Maskína poll points to 44% of all voters and 56% of decided voters being in favour of membership.

By comparison, only 34% of all voters and 44% of decided voters now oppose such a step.

Most Icelanders supported accession to the European Union in the 2000s, which changed with the eurozone crisis, when, for the first time, a majority of decided voters opposed membership. The trend then flipped after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022, when a Gallup poll found that 59% of decided voters wanted to become EU citizens.

Polls also suggest that the government parties have also lost the support of a majority of Icelanders.

If elections were held today, all government parties would obtain their worst-ever election results, with the Independence Party polling at about 20%, the Progressive Party at about 10%, and the Left-Green Movement at 6%

By comparison, the pro-European Social Democratic Alliance party would win if elections were held today with 28% – a huge increase from the 10% it received in the previous election. The next election is scheduled for 2025.

According to the same survey, 59% of all voters and 77% of decided voters wish for a referendum on resuming the negotiations with the EU. EU membership negotiations were already in full swing in 2011 and 2012 until the Social Democratic Alliance lost power to the Independence Party and Progressive Party.

Jakobsdóttir’s keynote speech at the European Greens congress 2022 may be read as a sign of her party warming up to a closer relationship with the bloc.

Iceland is a founding member of NATO and is already closely integrated with the EU as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), though due to it not being an EU member, it has no seats in the European Parliament or European Council.

Polls on joining the European Union were also recently conducted in other states. In Georgia, 90% of decided voters favour EU membership, while 61% of decided voters in the UK said they would vote in favour of rejoining the bloc.

(Tobias Gerhard Schminke, EuropeElects)