The Citizen's Movement (Borgarahreyfingin), which got four seats in the Icelandic parliament in the general elections that took place on last Saturday, has announced that whether or not Iceland should join the European Union is not a priority issue. Urgent issues regarding aid for Icelandic homes and companies as a result of the economic situation however are.
The Citizen's Movement emerged from the protests in Reykjavík last winter. In the same announcement it stresses that those protests had nothing to do with the EU but the collapse of the Icelandic bank sector and lack of actions from the authorities. This is seen as quite important news in Iceland since the Citizen's Movement has been described in foreign as well as some domestic media as being in favour of EU membership.
Meanwhile the Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin) and the Left Green Movement (Vinstrihreyfingin - grænt framboð) are still negotiating a new government and according to latest news it may even take another week to get results. The EU issue is by far the toughest matter to discuss according to the Icelandic media but the two parties have entirely different approach to the question whether Iceland should join the EU or not.
Source:
Lýsa áhyggjum af foringjastjórnmálum (Mbl.is 30/04/09)
Býst við viku í viðbót í viðræður (Rúv.is 30/04/09)
Related:
The results of the Icelandic general elections
No pro-EU protests in Iceland