{"id":122898,"date":"2026-08-25T02:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/122898\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T02:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:37:15","slug":"trumps-arctic-saber-rattling-boosts-icelands-pro-eu-campaign-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/122898\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Arctic saber-rattling boosts Iceland\u2019s pro-EU campaign \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

A question of sovereignty <\/p>\n

The key theme looming over the Icelandic referendum is sovereignty. But it\u2019s an issue that cuts two ways, and polls suggest the referendum is on a knife-edge. A Gallup poll in mid-August gave the \u201cYes\u201d camp a wafer-thin advantage, with 51.5 percent <\/a>support<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While \u201cYes\u201d campaigners like Eggertsson stress the regional implications of threats to Greenland\u2019s sovereignty, the \u201cNo\u201d camp argues the EU could impinge on Icelandic sovereignty, particularly within the politically crucial spheres of fisheries and farming policy.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it was fisheries quotas that were key to scuppering Iceland\u2019s previous bid to join the EU, which was definitively halted in 2015.<\/p>\n

\"\"Thirty-five-year-old musician Tumi \u00c1rnason says he will vote \u201cyes\u201d in the referendum. He\u2019s worried about the international situation the country finds itself in. | Carlo Martuscelli\/POLITICO<\/p>\n

Eir\u00edkur Bergmann, a professor of politics at Bifr\u00f6st University, explained that national sovereignty has been the core issue animating political debate in Iceland since its independence from Denmark in 1944.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two camps, both tapping into the same heritage,\u201d said Bergmann. \u201cOne is arguing that Iceland needs to join the European Union to enhance its sovereignty and guard its heritage of its independence struggle. Another camp, equally vocal, is cautioning against EU membership on the exact same grounds, arguing that it threatens Iceland\u2019s sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those sentiments on national independence and identity have a long pedigree. Iceland\u2019s parliament, the Althing, is one of the oldest electoral assemblies in the world, dating back more than a millennium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A question of sovereignty The key theme looming over the Icelandic referendum is sovereignty. But it\u2019s an issue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6342,81,1294,85,367,86,66,54,55,39,40,990,27514,94,116,688,118,120,107,16,32274,121,4704,241,45],"class_list":["post-122898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-borders","tag-china","tag-climate-change","tag-crisis","tag-defense","tag-denmark","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-enlargement","tag-eu","tag-european-union","tag-farmers","tag-fishing-quotas","tag-greenland","tag-iceland","tag-mark-carney","tag-negotiations","tag-referendum","tag-rights","tag-russia","tag-schengen-zone","tag-security","tag-shipping","tag-single-market","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}