Foreign Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson has an article today in the Icelandic tabloid DV where he lashes out aginst those in Iceland who are fighting against membership of the European Union, and have always fought against it, for doing that. This is seen as yet another token of the growing desperation among membership supporters that the application is heading for even more difficulties than it has already.
Skarphéðinsson's government has been distancing itself from the application in recent months claiming on a number of occasions it was not the government's policy to apply but merely the decision of the Icelandic parliament. The reason probably being the growing opposition to the application both among the voters in general and within the junior coalition partner the Left Green Movement.
As everyone else in Iceland Skarphéðinsson knows that the EU application was exceptionally poorly prepared and that it was rushed into it despite the fact that there has never been a necessary support in Iceland for taking such a step, neither political nor public. The Foreign Minister, however, chooses instead to blame those who everyone knew would continue to fight against an EU application for the mess.
On top of this there are rumours that MPs from Skarphéðinsson's Social Democratic Alliance, the current senior coalition parner and the only political party in Iceland that favours EU membership, are now hoping to form a new and less fragile government with the conservative Independence Party which has the policy that the EU application must be withdrawn immediately.