Significant changes were made to the Icelandic center-left government last week with new ministers coming in and others leaving. After these changes political analysts have said there is more hostility against membership of the European Union within the government than was before they took place.
But what has been seen as the most interesting change is that the new government policy does not mention the EU issue at all unlike the original government platform. However, this is in line with repeated statements by government ministers in recent months that the ongoing EU application is not the policy of the government but merely the decision of the Icelandic parliament.
This has led to speculations in Iceland that the government, especially the junior partner the Left Greens, may be preparing an organised retreat on the issue. After all it has become clear that not only the government is split on the question whether to proceed with the application but also the senior government partner the social democrats.
Source:
Þögn um Icesave og ESB aðild í 20 mála verkefnaskrá ríkisstjórnarinnar (Evropuvaktin.is September 2, 2010)