Around 8.000 protesters gathered yesterday in the centre of Reykjavík in a major show of anger against the coalition government.
The trigger of the rally was a letter that foreign minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson delivered last Thursday to the Presidency of the European Union (EU) and the Commission announcing that the government of Iceland had decided that it did not intend to restart accession negotiations with the EU.
As the letter had only been discussed in a closed cabinet meeting beforehand and not in the parliament, it took the general public, the opposition and even some members of the government’s parties by a complete surprise.
Iceland applied for a EU membership in the summer of 2009, after a vote in the parliament.
The coalition government of the Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn) and the Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn), voted into power in 2013, is fiercely against Iceland joining the EU and had stopped the accession negotiations in the autumn of 2013 so the letter actually did not reveal anything new.
Some members of both parties however want to finish the accession negotiations and then vote on membership in national referendum. Polls have repeatedly shown that the majority of the nation supports that viewpoint.
It was the government’s decision to bypass the parliament that triggered this weekend’s rally. Critics say it is unconstitutional, as the parliament should have the last word on all major foreign policy resolutions.
The strange thing is that after the initial confusion caused by the foreign minister’s letter it has emerged that it does not have any formal meaning at all. Iceland is still a formal EU candidate country and the accession negotiations are still considered to be on hold as they have been since the coalition government stopped them.
The consequences of the foreign minister's actions are however clear. The letter has deepened the resentment towards already unpopular government and reinvigorated the discussion about the pros and cons of Iceland’s possible EU membership.
What the foreign minister was thinking remains a mystery. Our guess is nothing at all. It looks like silly posturing, which has been his overwhelming style of government since he took to his post in 2013.
Around 8.000 protesters gathered yesterday in the centre of Reykjavík in a major show of anger against the coalition government.
The trigger of the rally was a letter that foreign minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson delivered last Thursday to the Presidency of the European Union (EU) and the Commission announcing that the government of Iceland had decided that it did not intend to restart accession negotiations with the EU.
As the letter had only been discussed in a closed cabinet meeting beforehand and not in the parliament, it took the general public, the opposition and even some members of the government’s parties by a complete surprise.
Iceland applied for a EU membership in the summer of 2009, after a vote in the parliament.
The coalition government of the Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn) and the Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn), voted into power in 2013, is fiercely against Iceland joining the EU and had stopped the accession negotiations in the autumn of 2013 so the letter actually did not reveal anything new.
Some members of both parties however want to finish the accession negotiations and then vote on membership in national referendum. Polls have repeatedly shown that the majority of the nation supports that viewpoint.
It was the government’s decision to bypass the parliament that triggered this weekend’s rally. Critics say it is unconstitutional, as the parliament should have the last word on all major foreign policy resolutions.
The strange thing is that after the initial confusion caused by the foreign minister’s letter it has emerged that it does not have any formal meaning at all. Iceland is still a formal EU candidate country and the accession negotiations are still considered to be on hold as they have been since the coalition government stopped them.
The consequences of the foreign minister's actions are however clear. The letter has deepened the resentment towards already unpopular government and reinvigorated the discussion about the pros and cons of Iceland’s possible EU membership.
What the foreign minister was thinking remains a mystery. Our guess is nothing at all. It looks like silly posturing, which has been his overwhelming style of government since he took to his post in 2013.
