‘Propaganda and false information’: Iceland votes no after a fiercely contested EU campaign

Iceland’s referendum on reopening European Union membership negotiations ended with a clear rejection, but the campaign left the country’s press fighting over how the result was reached.

Public broadcaster RUV reported that 52.8% of voters opposed resuming the talks, while 47.7% supported it. Turnout reached 82.5%, with 225,031 people voting. After a close evening of counting, only the two Reykjavik constituencies produced majorities for reopening negotiations.

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The final referendum result was that 52.8% said no and 47.7% said yes to resuming membership negotiations with the European Union.

Political scientist Ólafur Þ. Harðarson told Morgunbladit that the result reflected a divide between liberal internationalists in Reykjavik and national conservatives in rural areas. The referendum did not decide Iceland’s EU membership directly. It asked whether accession negotiations should continue, and voters rejected that option.

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If we consider the question from a cultural point of view, the so-called liberal internationalists prevailed in Reykjavik, while the so-called national conservatives won in rural areas.

Fishing stood out as one of the campaign’s central issues. The sector accounts for nearly 8% of Iceland’s gross domestic product and more than one-third of merchandise exports. It also helped bring earlier accession talks, launched in 2009, to a halt. The government had argued that Iceland could move closer to the EU while retaining control over its economic zone and fishing quotas, avoiding the bloc’s common fisheries policy.

The campaign extended into the newspapers. De Standaard accused Morgunbladit, which it said is controlled by the fishing industry, of publishing partial coverage favoring the no camp. On Aug. 22, the paper ran a front-page warning that three law professors believed no exemption from the common fisheries policy could be secured for membership. De Standaard said that claim was false. The result also disappointed supporters in Brussels, at a time when the EU is seeking to present itself as a credible alternative to other international powers.

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The referendum did not concern Iceland’s membership of the European Union as such, but the continuation of membership negotiations.