Iceland: a return to the right, a retreat from the EU

Anna Sonny, 17 May 2013

Last month, the prospect of EU accession was enough to bring together Serbia and Kosovo towards normalising relations. But on the other side of the continent, Iceland has voted in a eurosceptic government that is determined to keep the EU candidate country independent.

Iceland’s centre-right Independence Party, and their previous coalition partner the Progressive Party, took 26.7% and 24.4% of the vote respectively. These two parties were ousted after the financial crisis that hit Iceland in 2008. But the Social Democrat government that took over from them and oversaw the austerity and tax rises have been voted out, despite Iceland’s recovery. In the context of the way Europe is currently voting, Iceland’s elections are an interesting case.

Public discontent, especially financial crises, means that voters are interested in seeing short-term results that will make their economic sacrifices worth it. The political spectrum from left to right now seems to be an axis around which governments rotate frequently depending on the economic circumstance of the country.

For now, it seems that joining the EU will not be a priority for Iceland. The Independence Party, as its name suggests, is keen to keep the island’s sovereignty. If Iceland does decide to abandon EU entry negotiations it will certainly not be isolated, despite its geographic location. It is a member of the European Economic Area and the European Free Trade Association and has recently become the first European nation to sign a free trade deal with China, in an agreement signed last month.

While for Britain, the question of independence from the EU is often presented as a pendulum that swings between the seemingly mutually exclusive choice of trade with the EU and trade with the rest of the world, Iceland is proving that it is possible to choose both.