Ahead of the referendum, the two sides held a televised debate where the Yes campaign team was headed by Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir and the No campaign was led by Guðrún Hafsteinsdóttir, chair of the opposition Independence Party.
Kristrún told the audience that Iceland was already well integrated in the European Union, and becoming a member would be “one of the biggest risk-reducing steps we can take”.
She also made clear that a Yes vote did not necessarily mean that Iceland would join, and that if there was a No vote, the result would be respected.
Guðrún, meanwhile, stressed that the vote was not about whether Iceland should work well with Europe: “We already do, and we want that to continue.”
Instead, she portrayed the referendum as a vote on whether Icelanders wanted to hand “decision-making powers” to Brussels on fisheries, agriculture and their natural resources.
Although geopolitics kick-started the government’s decision to push for a return to EU talks, there has been little discussion of it during the campaign.
“It’s lower on the agenda than many would think,” says Hallgrimur Oddsson, director of EU-Iceland think-tank European Currents.
