Pro-EU campaigners hope fears over the US president’s Arctic ambitions will override traditional Euroscepticism
REYKJAVÍK – Iceland’s EU vote is set to go down to the wire, with No campaigners gaining ground as concerns over fisheries and national sovereignty eclipse geopolitical turmoil.
The Icelandic government initially promised to hold a referendum no later than 2027 but decided to move faster after US President Donald Trump’s demands to take control of Greenland changed the equation.
“It is no secret that the situation has changed a great deal over the past one and a half years,” the country’s prime minister, Kristrún Frostadóttir, said in a televised debate. “We are seeing the United States use tariffs as instruments of trade coercion and as a weapon.”
Frostadóttir has run a low-key campaign but stepped up her efforts in the final stretch to convince voters that it is time to begin EU membership negotiations.
