Björn Bjarnason accuses government of undermining democratic process

Former minister Björn Bjarnason has accused Iceland’s government of mishandling the lead-up to a referendum on resuming EU accession talks and then playing down its result, mbl.is reports. He said the government had distorted democratic practices and that no liberal democracy would have acted in the same way.

Bjarnason made the comments in an interview on Spursmál about his new book, When Iceland Said No, which examines the events before the August 29 referendum. Voters rejected continuing accession negotiations with the European Union.

He criticised ministers for appearing unwilling to treat the result as a final decision. In his view, the government had made a major effort to secure public backing for restarting the talks but now seemed to be diminishing the referendum’s significance.

“I thank my lucky stars” that the government did not receive a mandate to negotiate Iceland’s EU membership, Bjarnason said. He described the government’s conduct as political bungling, poor judgement and political overreach that should not be tolerated in a democracy.

Bjarnason also called it contradictory for the government to present the referendum as a victory for democracy while suggesting afterwards that it was little more than an opinion poll.

Asked whether he was describing the government’s conduct as foolish, he rejected that wording but said: “I would not put it that way, but this is, in my view, a distortion of democratic governance.”