New opinion poll was published yesterday produced for The Federation of Icelandic Industries (Samtök iðnaðarins) by Capacent Gallup among the members of the federation. That is among the leaders of the businesses which are members of the federation.
The Federation of Icelandic Industries has for a long time been a strong supporter of an Icelandic membership of the European Union and it has been the stronghold of those in favour of membership in Iceland's business community.
However, according to the poll 58.7 percent of the members of the federation are now opposed to EU membership and only 27.4 percent in favour. Last time similar poll was produced in February-March 2007 43.4 percent wanted membership against 39.3 percent which rejected it. The change is therefore enormous.
Asked how they would vote in a referendum on EU membership 68.8 percent said they would reject membership. Of those 53.1 percent said they would definitely say no. The rest said they would probably do so. 31.2 percent said they would support membership but only 15.1 percent of those said they would definitely say no.
The poll now also finds that 45 percent oppose the euro while the 36.5 percent favour adopting it in one way or another. In February-March 2006, last time the members of the federation were asked this question, 61.1 percent wanted to adopt the euro while 26.1 percent did not.
Finally the poll found that 50 percent thought it would be bad for Iceland's economy to join the EU while 33.7 percent thought it would have good influence. In February-March 2007 54.7 percent thought EU membership would be good for the country's economy.
Sources:
Iðnaðurinn á móti aðild að ESB (Mbl.is March 29, 2012)
The results of the poll (in Icelandic)
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