Less than 18 percent want the current government

According to a new opinion poll by the polling company MMR published November 11 less than 18 percent want the current left wing government in Iceland, which applied for membership of the European Union in 2009, to continue governing the country. The rest wants other froms of governments or is uncertain.

Source:
The MMR poll

Growing EU division in the Icelandic government

There seem to be growing divisions in the Icelandic government over the application for membership of the European Union delivered in the summer of 2009. Today the Minister of Justice, Ögmundur Jónasson, (from the Left Green Movement) says in an article in the Icelandic daily Morgunblaðið that he wants the accession negotiations to be concluded in two months time and the referendum to take place in the wake of that.

Jónasson also says in the article that this is possible if the accession process will be stripped down to "real negotiations" as he phrased it with no alignment to EU laws and administration as the EU demands alongside the talks. Jónasson voted in favour of the EU application in 2009 despite being opposed to membership. In a media interview today he said that he did not vote in favour of an alignment of Iceland to EU demands.

Source:
Vill ljúka aðildaviðræðum á tveimur mánuðum (Vísir.is November 13, 2010)

Says the government has no intention to join the EU

Bjarni Benediktsson, chairman of Iceland's Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn), the largest opposition party and the country's largest political part according to opinion polls, said in a radio interview on November 7 that the government should simply tell the European Union the truth, that in reality there is no meaning behind the accession process on the government's behalf.

"I think this is stranded at the moment. Very little is really happening. Despite the commitment by the [leadership of the] Left Green Movement to support the accession process they are stalling it every week. Then it is much cleaner simply to tell the people on the other end: We don't mean anything with this," Benediktsson said.

He said to his opinion it was a wrong move for the government to apply for EU membership.

Source:
Meinum ekkert með þessu (Mbl.is November 7, 2010)

Only 30 percent now support Iceland's government

New public opinion poll in Iceland produced by Capacent shows that only 30 percent now support the country's center-left government led by the Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin), which is the only Icelandic political party that favours joining the European Union. The SDA got almost 30 percent in the general elections in April 2009 but now has only 18 percent according to the poll.

Meanwhile the conservative Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn) now has 36 percent and is by far the largest political party in Iceland according to polls in recent months. Traditionally the party has been Iceland's largest party for decades but it lost that status briefly after the 2008 financial crash in Iceland. The party has the policy thatthe country's ongoing EU application should be withdrawn immediately.

Source:
Fylgi ríkisstjórnarinnar hrynur (Mbl.is November 1, 2010)