“If I become foreign minister or prime minister later, have I fulfilled this simply by asking the EU, ‘what are you willing to give us?’ And is my job done?” wondered Gunnlaugsson. “They can’t explain how to honor the vote if it’s a ‘Yes,’” he said, referring to the current Social Democrat-led government.
The right-wing politician rose to prominence during the 2008 financial crisis as the spokesperson for a campaign against using Icelandic taxpayer money to bail out the country’s largest bank and repay foreign creditors in the U.K. and the Netherlands. He founded the Centre Party in 2017.
Gunnlaugsson describes his party as “small ‘c’ conservative and centrist” — though some of his opponents disagree.
“People sometimes call us populist, and it always annoys me because I always see myself as anti-populist. I’m always talking about things that are difficult to explain, and I’m always annoyed about how politics is becoming all about just the surface and easy ideas,” said Gunnlaugsson.
In June of this year, however, his Centre Party joined the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament, which includes right-wing nationalist parties that often receive the populist label, such as Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Poland’s Law and Justice party.
A geopolitical vote
On Aug. 29, Icelanders will answer either “Yes” or “No” to the question: “Should negotiations on Iceland’s membership in the European Union start again?”
