Icelandic voters reject proposal to restart negotiations to join European Union

Iceland’s voters rejected restarting negotiations to join the European Union in a referendum that pitted concerns about geopolitical stability against keeping national control of Iceland’s prized fisheries, officials said on Sunday.

Opponents defeated the measure by a margin of 52.8 per cent to 47.2 per cent, the National Electoral Commission said. The result puts the divisive issue to rest for now – more than a decade after a Eurosceptic government ended EU talks that had begun after the 2008 financial crisis.

The vote on Saturday was held in the shadow of repeated threats by US President Donald Trump to take control of nearby Greenland. Although Iceland is a Nato member, supporters said European solidarity would provide greater protection if Trump ever made similar threats towards the volcanic island.

Iceland’s left-leaning coalition government, elected in 2024, moved up the EU referendum it had planned for next year after Trump mistakenly named Iceland four times while speaking about his designs on Greenland.

Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir said she did not see the loss as a setback for her coalition government but as a win for democracy as more than 82 per cent of the eligible 270,000 voters cast ballots. She said she would respect the result but would not rule out a future attempt to reopen the issue.

“Things happened in the past couple of years, though, that I could not have predicted,” she said. “But this government will not go forward with it. And something big has to change in the next 24 months for this to be at the top of the agenda.”