Voters in Iceland are heading to the polls Saturday (August 29, 2026) to decide whether the country should resume long-stalled negotiations on becoming a member of the European Union , and they are doing so in the shadow of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to control nearby Greenland .
If voters reject the proposal, that’s it, for a generation at least. The yes-or-no referendum question is simple enough for the 265,000 or so eligible voters: Should Iceland resume accession negotiations with the European Union?
The underlying worry among many in Iceland is clear — if Greenland is seized, is Iceland next? The ensuing question is clear too — if yes, does EU membership provide a bulwark against any new Trump ambition in the North Atlantic? The government has indicated it would look for a special arrangement, potentially a full opt-out from the policy.
Iceland’s left-leaning coalition government, elected in 2024, certainly thinks so and that’s largely why it moved forward the EU referendum that it had planned for next year. Joining the 27-nation EU would require Iceland joining the bloc’s common fisheries policy that would allow Spanish, Dutch and other trawlers into their waters.
In the final days ahead of the vote, Iceland’s Prime Minister, Kristrun Frostadottir, has sought to remind voters that the referendum is not the end of the matter, and that there will be another referendum if and when a membership agreement with the EU has been reached.
“We can’t really trust the U.S. anymore,” said Hildur Knutsdottir, a horror fiction writer who plans to vote in favour of EU membership. “I think Iceland is better off outside of the EU, within the close collaboration with the EU,” former Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir told The Associated Press.
