Anger at EU referendum delay

The Speaker of the Icelandic Parliament (‘Alþingi’) has put the proposal submitted by Ice­land’s four op­po­si­tion par­ties for a ref­er­en­dum on con­tin­u­ing ac­ces­sion ne­go­ti­a­tions with the Eu­ro­pean Union (EU) on the agenda for discussion immediately after the Easter recess.

Angry reactions

Despite this action, representatives of the four opposition parties moving the proposal reacted angrily in Alþingi today at the perceived needless delay in discussing the matter.

“What issues require disucssion so urgently that this issue must wait?” wondered Sig­ríður Ingibjörg Inga­dótt­ir, MP for the centre-left Social Democratic Alliance. Her party colleague, Valgerður Bjarna­dótt­ir, stated she could not remember an instance of an issue raised by all opposition parties together not being discussed immediately.

Referendum “election pledge”

“There isn’t a huge amount of important topics being put forward by the government at the moment. The governing parties both promised a referendum before the elections and the opposition parties demand that this issue be discussed now.

Guðmund­ur Stein­gríms­son, leader of the Bright Future party. Photo: Ómar Óskarsson

Society divided

“Society is in crisis and people are divided. Elections pledges have been broken,” stated Hall­dóra Mo­gensen, MP for the Pirate Party (‘Píratar’). “I don’t understand whom Mister Speaker is working for.”

The Speaker assured members that he considered the affair to be extremely important and had therefore scheduled it for discussion as soon as Easter recess is over.

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EU ref­er­en­dum on the cards?